Desperately Ducking Slavery: Dred Scott and Contemporary Constitutional Theory

1997; Princeton University Press; Volume: 14; Issue: 2 Linguagem: Inglês

ISSN

0742-7115

Autores

Mark A. Graber,

Tópico(s)

Legal Systems and Judicial Processes

Resumo

Contemporary constitutional theory rests on three premises. Brown v. Board of Education was correct, Lochner v. New York was wrong, and Dred Scott v. Sandford was also wrong. A few intrepid souls question whether Brown was correctly decided (although they would not have Supreme Court overrule that decision}.! Some proponents of law and economics favor reviving freedom of contract and Lochner decision.z No one, however, wishes to rethink universal condemnation of Dred Scott.3 American legal and constitutional scholars, The Oxford Companion to Supreme Court states, consider Dred Scott decision to be worst ever rendered by Supreme Court.4 David Currie's encyclopedic The Constitution in Supreme Court maintains that decision was bad policy, bad judicial politics and bad law.s Commentators across political spectrum describe Dred Scott as the worst constitutional decision of nineteenth century,6 the worst atrocity in

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