YOU SHOULDN'T assume that I hold the major dissenter in Dred Scott in particularly high regard as a person or even as a member of the Court, while agreeing with Louis Boudin that his long dissent in that case is a masterpiece of obliteration of the claims of Taney and the rest of them, one so strong that abolitionists circulated it in pamphlet form, probably something the author wouldn't have welcomed. His future history is somewhat marred by his opposition to the 14th Amendment giving full citizenship to all Black People, his reticence concerning Reconstruction and his defense of the indefensible Andrew Johnson. But this is about his dissent which, aside from that special lawyerly logic that is so useful for lawyers, judges and "justices" doing injustice, is a masterpiece of intellectual demolition.
Here is a link to a full text of his dissent, calling your attention to his demolition of the historical claims of Taney concerning the possibility of Black People being citizens under the United States Constitution, his argument that they were in some states goes back to the earliest form of the United States and even before that because the constitutions of the states and their laws going back into the colonial period are the only evidence to base any such claim on. Something that Taney et al lied about since some of the certainly knew parts of that record, it being a part of then fairly recent judicial decisions.
The other part is, of course, his demolition of the Taney Court creating its power to overturn or annul federal law. I may use both of those in separate posts soon.
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