Taney Court

Last updated
Supreme Court of the United States
Taney Court
Roger B. Taney - Brady-Handy.jpg
March 28, 1836 – October 12, 1864
(28 years, 198 days)
Seat Old Supreme Court Chamber
(1836–1860)
Old Senate Chamber
(1860–1864)
Washington, D.C.
No. of positions 7 (1836–1837)
9 (1837–1863)
10 (1863–1864)
Taney Court decisions
Seal of the United States Supreme Court.svg

The Taney Court refers to the Supreme Court of the United States from 1836 to 1864, when Roger Taney served as the fifth Chief Justice of the United States. Taney succeeded John Marshall as Chief Justice after Marshall's death in 1835. Taney served as Chief Justice until his death in 1864, at which point Salmon P. Chase took office. Taney had been an important member of Andrew Jackson's administration, an advocate of Jacksonian democracy, and had played a major role in the Bank War, during which Taney wrote a memo questioning the Supreme Court's power of judicial review. [1] However, the Taney Court did not strongly break from the decisions and precedents of the Marshall Court, as it continued to uphold a strong federal government with an independent judiciary. [2] Most of the Taney Court's holdings are overshadowed by the decision in Dred Scott v. Sandford , in which the court ruled that African-Americans could not be citizens. [3] However, the Taney Court's decisions regarding economic issues and separation of powers set important precedents, and the Taney Court has been lauded for its ability to adapt regulatory law to a country undergoing remarkable technological and economic progress. [4]

Contents

Membership

Taney was appointed Chief Justice by President Andrew Jackson, who filled a vacancy caused by the death of Chief Justice John Marshall in 1835. Jackson had previously nominated Taney to fill a vacancy caused by the retirement of Gabriel Duvall, but Taney's appointment for that seat was not voted on by the Senate. Duvall's seat was instead filled by Philip P. Barbour in 1836. After the confirmation of Barbour, the Taney Court consisted of Taney, Barbour, and five Associate Justices from the Marshall Court: Joseph Story, Smith Thompson, John McLean, Henry Baldwin, and James Moore Wayne. Jackson appointed John Catron to the bench in 1837 after Congress increased the size of the Supreme Court to nine seats. The same year, President Martin Van Buren filled the other newly created seat with the appointment John McKinley. Van Buren also appointed Peter Vivian Daniel in 1841 after the death of Barbour. Thompson died in 1843, but President John Tyler was unsuccessful in his attempts to fill the seat. However, Tyler was able to nominate Samuel Nelson right before leaving office, and soon after, President James K. Polk successfully nominated Levi Woodbury a short time after taking office, replacing Thompson and Story. Polk also appointed Robert Cooper Grier, replacing Baldwin; the vacancy caused by Baldwin's death is the longest in Supreme Court history. [5]

Millard Fillmore appointed Benjamin Curtis to replace Woodbury in 1851; Curtis is the only Whig-appointed Justice in American history and is the last justice who was not appointed by a member of the Democratic or Republican parties. President Franklin Pierce appointed John Archibald Campbell in 1853, replacing McKinley. Curtis resigned from the court following the 1857 Dred Scott decision, and President James Buchanan appointed Nathan Clifford as his replacement. At the start of the Civil War, Campbell resigned from the court to serve as a Confederate official. McLean and Daniel also died around the same time. In 1862, President Abraham Lincoln appointed Noah Haynes Swayne (the first Republican-appointed justice in history), Samuel Freeman Miller, David Davis to replace them. Lincoln also appointed Stephen Johnson Field to a newly created seat. Taney died in 1864, and Lincoln appointed Salmon P. Chase as the new Chief Justice. The Taney Court is notable for its long vacancies, as the three longest vacancies in court history all occurred during Taney's tenure as Chief Justice. [5]

Timeline

Taney Court

Note: +denotes new seat

Bar key:
  Madison appointee  Monroe appointee  Jackson appointee  Van Buren appointee  Tyler appointee  Polk appointee  Fillmore appointee  Pierce appointee  Buchanan appointee  Lincoln appointee

Other branches

Presidents during this court included Andrew Jackson, Martin Van Buren, William Henry Harrison, John Tyler, James K. Polk, Zachary Taylor, Millard Fillmore, Franklin Pierce, James Buchanan, and Abraham Lincoln. Congresses during this court included 24th through the 38th United States Congresses.

Rulings of the Court

The Taney Court issued several major rulings during its tenure, including: [6]

For a full list of decisions by the Taney Court, see lists of United States Supreme Court cases by volume, volumes 36 through 68.

See also

Related Research Articles

Dred Scott v. Sandford, 60 U.S. 393 (1857), was a landmark decision of the United States Supreme Court that held the U.S. Constitution did not extend American citizenship to people of black African descent, and therefore they could not enjoy the rights and privileges the Constitution conferred upon American citizens. The decision is widely considered the worst in the Supreme Court's history, being widely denounced for its overt racism, judicial activism, poor legal reasoning, and 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". A future chief justice, Charles Evans Hughes, called it the Court's "greatest self-inflicted wound".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Dred Scott</span> African-American plaintiff in freedom suit (c.1799–1858)

Dred Scott was an enslaved African American man who, along with his wife, Harriet, unsuccessfully sued for the freedom of themselves and their two daughters, Eliza and Lizzie, in the Dred Scott v. Sandford case of 1857, popularly known as the "Dred Scott decision". The Scotts claimed that they should be granted 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 slave holders gave up their rights to slaves if they stayed for an extended period.

<i>Ex parte Merryman</i> United States legal case

Ex parte Merryman, 17 F. Cas. 144 (No. 9487), was a controversial U.S. federal court case that arose out of the American Civil War. It was a test of the authority of the President to suspend "the privilege of the writ of habeas corpus" under the Constitution's Suspension Clause, when Congress was in recess and therefore unavailable to do so itself. More generally, the case raised questions about the ability of the executive branch to decline to enforce judicial decisions when the executive believes them to be erroneous and harmful to its own legal powers.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Philip P. Barbour</span> US Supreme Court justice from 1836 to 1841

Philip Pendleton Barbour was the tenth speaker of the United States House of Representatives and an associate justice of the Supreme Court of the United States. He is the only individual to serve in both positions.

A number of cases were tried before the Supreme Court of the United States during the period of the American Civil War. These cases focused on wartime civil liberties, and the ability of the various branches of the government to alter them. The following cases were among the most significant.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Benjamin Robbins Curtis</span> US Supreme Court justice from 1851 to 1857

Benjamin Robbins Curtis was an American lawyer and judge who served as an associate justice of the United States Supreme Court from 1851 to 1857. Curtis was the first and only Whig justice of the Supreme Court, and he was the first Supreme Court justice to have a formal law degree. He is often remembered as one of the two dissenters in the Supreme Court's infamous 1857 decision Dred Scott v. Sandford.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Noah Haynes Swayne</span> US Supreme Court justice from 1862 to 1881

Noah Haynes Swayne was an American jurist and politician. He was the first Republican appointed as a justice to the United States Supreme Court.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">John Archibald Campbell</span> US Supreme Court justice from 1853 to 1861

John Archibald Campbell was an American jurist. He was a successful lawyer in Georgia and Alabama, where he served in the state legislature. Appointed by Franklin Pierce to the United States Supreme Court in 1853, he resigned at the beginning of the American Civil War, traveled south and became an official of the Confederate States of America. After serving six months in a military prison at war's end, he secured a pardon and resumed his law practice in New Orleans, where he also opposed Reconstruction.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Marshall Court</span> Period of the US Supreme Court from 1801 to 1835

The Marshall Court refers to the Supreme Court of the United States from 1801 to 1835, when John Marshall served as the fourth Chief Justice of the United States. Marshall served as Chief Justice until his death, at which point Roger Taney took office. The Marshall Court played a major role in increasing the power of the judicial branch, as well as the power of the national government.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Chase Court</span> Period of the US Supreme Court from 1864 to 1873

The Chase Court refers to the Supreme Court of the United States from 1864 to 1873, when Salmon P. Chase served as the sixth Chief Justice of the United States. Chase succeeded Roger Taney as Chief Justice after the latter's death. Appointed by President Abraham Lincoln, Chase served as Chief Justice until his death, at which point Morrison Waite was nominated and confirmed as his successor.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Inauguration of James Buchanan</span> 18th United States presidential inauguration

The inauguration of James Buchanan as the 15th president of the United States was held on Wednesday, March 4, 1857, at the East Portico of the United States Capitol in Washington, D.C. This was the 18th inauguration and marked the commencement of the only four-year term of both James Buchanan as president and John C. Breckinridge as vice president. Chief Justice Roger B. Taney administered the presidential oath of office. This was the first inauguration ceremony known to be photographed.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">John Catron</span> US Supreme Court justice from 1837 to 1865

John Catron was an American jurist who served as an associate justice of the Supreme Court of the United States from 1837 to 1865, during the Taney Court.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Peter V. Daniel</span> US Supreme Court justice from 1842 to 1860

Peter Vivian Daniel was an American jurist who served as an associate justice of the Supreme Court of the United States.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Robert Cooper Grier</span> US Supreme Court justice from 1846 to 1870

Robert Cooper Grier was an American jurist who served on the Supreme Court of the United States.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">John McLean</span> American jurist and politician (1785–1861)

John McLean was an American jurist and politician who served in the United States Congress, as U.S. Postmaster General, and as a justice of the Ohio and U.S. Supreme Courts. He was often discussed for the Whig Party nominations for president, and is also one of the few people who served in all three branches of government.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Samuel Nelson</span> US Supreme Court justice from 1845 to 1872

Samuel Nelson was an American attorney and appointed as judge of New York State courts. He was appointed as a Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States, serving from 1845 to 1872. He concurred on the 1857 Dred Scott decision, although for reasons different from Chief Justice Taney's.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Roger B. Taney</span> Chief justice of the United States from 1836 to 1864 (1777–1864)

Roger Brooke Taney was an American lawyer and politician who served as the fifth chief justice of the United States, holding that office from 1836 until his death in 1864. Taney infamously delivered the majority opinion in Dred Scott v. Sandford (1857), ruling that African Americans could not be considered U.S. citizens and that Congress could not prohibit slavery in the U.S. territories. Prior to joining the U.S. Supreme Court, Taney served as the U.S. attorney general and U.S. secretary of the treasury under President Andrew Jackson. He was the first Catholic to serve on the Supreme Court.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">James M. Wayne</span> US Supreme Court justice from 1835 to 1867

James Moore Wayne was an American attorney, judge and politician who served as an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States from 1835 to 1867. He previously served as the 16th Mayor of Savannah, Georgia from 1817 to 1819 and the member of the United States House of Representatives for Georgia's at-large congressional district from 1829 to 1835, when he was appointed to the Supreme Court by President Andrew Jackson. He was a member of the Democratic Party.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Levi Woodbury</span> US Supreme Court justice from 1845 to 1851

Levi Woodbury was an American attorney, jurist, and Democratic politician from New Hampshire. During a four-decade career in public office, Woodbury served as Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States, a United States Senator, the ninth governor of New Hampshire, and cabinet member in the Andrew Jackson and Martin Van Buren administrations. He was promoted as a candidate for the Democratic nomination for President of the United States in 1848.

References

  1. Schwartz, Bernard (1993). A History of the Supreme Court. New York: Oxford University Press. pp. 71–72.
  2. Schwartz, 73-74
  3. "Roger Taney". The Supreme Court. PBS. Retrieved 10 March 2016.
  4. Huebner, Timothy S. (2003). The Taney Court: Justices, Rulings, and Legacy. ABC-CLIO. pp. 175–176, 185–186. ISBN   9781576073681 . Retrieved 10 March 2016.
  5. 1 2 Desilver, Drew (26 February 2016). "Long Supreme Court vacancies used to be more common". Pew. Retrieved 10 March 2016.
  6. Schwartz, 69-105
  7. Schwartz, 75-77
  8. Schwartz, 95-96
  9. Schwartz, 84-88

Further reading

Works on the Taney Court

  • Allen, Austin (2010). Origins of the Dred Scott Case: Jacksonian Jurisprudence and the Supreme Court, 1837-1857. University of Georgia Press. ISBN   9780820336640.
  • Huebner, Timothy S. (2010). "Roger Taney and the Slavery Issue: Looking Beyond—and Before—Dred Scott". Journal of American History. 97 (1): 39–62. doi:10.2307/jahist/97.1.17. JSTOR   40662816.
  • Huebner, Timothy S. (2003). The Taney Court, Justice Rulings and Legacy. ABC-CLIO. ISBN   1-57607-368-8.
  • Maltz, Earl M. (2009). Slavery and the Supreme Court, 1825-1861. University Press of Kansas. ISBN   9780700616664.
  • Simon, James F. (2006). Lincoln and Chief Justice Taney: Slavery, Secession, and the President's War Powers (Paperback ed.). Simon & Schuster. ISBN   0-7432-9846-2.
  • Streichler, Stuart (2005). Justice Curtis in the Civil War Era: At the Crossroads of American Constitutionalism. University of Virginia Press. ISBN   9780813923420.

Other relevant works