John Claggett Danforth is an American politician, attorney and diplomat who began his career in 1968 as the Attorney General of Missouri and served three terms as United States Senator from Missouri. In 2004, he served briefly as United States Ambassador to the United Nations. Danforth is an ordained Episcopal priest.
Dred Scott v. Sandford, 60 U.S. 393 (1857), was a landmark decision of the United States Supreme Court in which the Court held that the United States Constitution was not meant to include American citizenship for people of African descent, regardless of whether they were enslaved or free, and so the rights and privileges that the Constitution confers upon American citizens could not apply to them. The Supreme Court's decision has been widely denounced, both for how overtly racist the decision was and its crucial role in the start of the American Civil War four years later. Legal scholar Bernard Schwartz said that it "stands first in any list of the worst Supreme Court decisions". Chief Justice Charles Evans Hughes called it the Court's "greatest self-inflicted wound". Historian Junius P. Rodriguez said that it is "universally condemned as the U.S. Supreme Court's worst decision." Historian David Thomas Konig said that it was "unquestionably, our court's worst decision ever."
Dred Scott was an enslaved African-American man who, along with his wife, Harriet, unsuccessfully sued for freedom for themselves and their two daughters in the Dred Scott v. Sandford case of 1857, popularly known as the "Dred Scott decision". The case centered on Dred and Harriet Scott and their children, Eliza and Lizzie. The Scotts claimed that they should be granted their freedom because Dred had lived in Illinois and the Wisconsin Territory for four years, where slavery was illegal, and laws in those jurisdictions said that slaveholders gave up their rights to slaves if they stayed for an extended period.
William Todd Akin was an American politician who served as the U.S. representative for Missouri's 2nd congressional district from 2001 to 2013. He was a member of the Republican Party. Born in New York City, Akin grew up in the Greater St. Louis area. After receiving his bachelor's degree from Worcester Polytechnic Institute in Massachusetts, Akin served in the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and worked in the computer and steel industries. In 1988, he was elected to the Missouri House of Representatives. He served in the state house until 2000, when he was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives, in which he served until 2013.
The mayor of St. Louis is the chief executive officer of St. Louis's city government. The mayor has a duty to enforce city ordinances and the power to either approve or veto city ordinances passed by the Board of Aldermen. The current mayor is Tishaura Jones, who took office on April 20, 2021.
The Supreme Court of the State of North Carolina is the state of North Carolina's highest appellate court. Until the creation of the North Carolina Court of Appeals in the 1960s, it was the state's only appellate court. The Supreme Court consists of six associate justices and one chief justice, although the number of justices has varied from time to time. The primary function of the Supreme Court is to decide questions of law that have arisen in the lower courts and before state administrative agencies.
Ronald Murray Gould is a United States Circuit Judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit since 1999.
Michael A. Wolff is the dean emeritus of Saint Louis University School of Law and a former Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Missouri.
Richard B. Teitelman was a judge and chief justice of the Supreme Court of Missouri.
The United States District Court for the Eastern District of Missouri is a trial level federal district court based in St. Louis, Missouri, with jurisdiction over fifty counties in the eastern half of Missouri. The court is one of ninety-four district-level courts which make up the first tier of the U.S. federal judicial system. Judges of this court preside over civil and criminal trials on federal matters that originate within the borders of its jurisdiction. It is organized into three divisions, with court held in St. Louis, Hannibal, and Cape Girardeau.
Christopher Andrew Koster is an American lawyer and politician who served as the 41st Attorney General of Missouri from 2009 to 2017. Prior to serving as attorney general, Koster was elected three times as prosecuting attorney of Cass County, Missouri. Additionally, he served four years as State Senator from Missouri's 31st Senatorial district.
Laura Denvir Stith is a former judge of the Supreme Court of Missouri. She served from 2001 to 2021. She was elected by her fellow Supreme Court justices to serve a two-year term as Chief Justice, from July 1, 2007, to June 30, 2009, becoming the second woman to serve as Missouri's highest-ranking jurist.
Charles Blakey "Charlie" Blackmar was a judge of the Supreme Court of Missouri from 1982 to 1992, and chief justice of the court from 1989 to 1991. Blackmar was appointed to the court by Governor Kit Bond.
Andrew Jackson Higgins (1921-2011) was a judge on the Supreme Court of Missouri between 1979 and 1991, and its Chief Justice from 1985 to 1987. Previously, he had served as a commissioner for the Supreme Court between 1964 and 1979, and as Circuit Court Judge for Platte County from 1960 to 1964.
Warren Welliver (1920-2007) was judge on the Supreme Court of Missouri from 1979 until 1989. As a judge, he established Comparative Negligence as a defense in civil tort lawsuits, overruling the older Contributory Negligence standard. Judge Welliver was also famously passed up for Chief Justice; traditionally the judges take turns in the two-year job but Welliver was bypassed for the position. Judge Welliver was also known for his strong stances in favor of protecting a criminal defendant's rights at trial, and his opposition to the Missouri Plan.
John E. Bardgett, Sr. (1927–2008) was a judge on the Missouri Supreme Court from 1970 until 1982.
June P. Morgan was a judge on the Missouri Supreme Court from 1969 until 1982, and the chief justice of that same court from 1977 to 1979. Morgan authored a 1982 decision declaring that pension benefits accrued during a marriage are marital property, rather than the separate property of the person who earned the pension. He also wrote a 1976 decision saying it was constitutional to provide public tuition grants to college students who attended private colleges, and a 1978 decision upholding industrial development corporations, which permit low-interest financing for businesses.
Michael Lynn Parson is an American politician serving as the 57th governor of Missouri since 2018. A member of the Republican Party, Parson previously served in the Missouri House of Representatives from 2005 to 2011 and in the Missouri Senate from 2011 to 2017. He served as the 47th lieutenant governor of Missouri under Eric Greitens from 2017 to 2018. He was sworn in as the state's governor on June 1, 2018, following Greitens's resignation; he served the remainder of Greitens' term and was elected governor in his own right in 2020 over Missouri State Auditor Nicole Galloway.
Kimberly M. Gardner is an American politician and attorney from the state of Missouri. She is the circuit attorney for the city of St. Louis, Missouri. She previously served as a member of the Missouri House of Representatives.
Robin Ransom is an American lawyer who serves as a judge of the Supreme Court of Missouri. She was appointed to the court in 2021 by Governor Mike Parson, and is the first African-American woman to hold the position. Prior to her appointment to the Supreme Court, Ransom served on the Missouri Court of Appeals for the Eastern District from 2019 to 2021 and served on the St. Louis Circuit Court from 2008 to 2019.