Dred Scott v. Sandford

This was an 1857 U.S. Supreme Court Case that decided whether or not residency in a territory which did not recognize slavery in law granted freedom to the slave.

Roger B. Taney, the Chief Justice, rendered the decision for the court.

He ruled that the Constitution's Fifth Amendment protection of property overruled local law and that residency did not change the status of a person's property. Because of this, he also ruled that the Missouri Compromise (which by this time was a dead letter anyway) had been unconstitutional.