nited States. The Supreme Court ruled on this March 6, 1857 that slavery was legal in all territories. This ruling was only two (2) days after the presidential election of James Buchanan. Although every justice wrote an opinion, Roger B. Taney's was the most regarded. It was the most highly regarded because of its consequences pertaining to the sectional crisis. Taney wrote in his opinion that blacks had "no rights which any white man was bound to respect. There were nine (9) justices at this time. Seven (7) of them denied Scott his emancipation and two (2) dissented. Supreme Court justices also ruled that the Missouri Compromise of 1820 was unconstitutional. They also ruled that under the Fifth Amendment of the United States Constitution masters were entitled complete property rights. Consequences of this ruling were catastrophic for several reasons. One of them was that it had an impact against the efforts of the Republican Party recently formed to stop the extension of slavery into western lands. Secondly, advocate of popular sovereignty, Stephen Douglas, was forced to devise a new method which settlers could use to put an end to slavery once and for all. This method is known as the Freeport Doctrine. Another consequence was President Buchanan, the South, and most of the Supreme Court hoped that this case would eradicate the problem of the antislavery agitation. On the other hand, it strengthened the Republican Party and initiated greater animosity between the North and the South. That repugnance then lead to the beginning of the Civil War. In the Supreme Court ruling Roger B. Taney was the most influential and loud spoken chief justice. He was a great chief justice and was appointed when John Marshall died. He was responsible for the court's extension of federal admiralty jurisdiction to inland waterways, augmented the federal court's jurisdiction, and allowed them to create one body of federal commercial law. As ...
