Dred Scott and the Dangers of a Political Court

by EthanGreenberg (Author)

• New

  Paperback
  2010

  $72.99

• New

  Hardcover
  2009

  $162.70

  Dred Scott exemplies neither originalism nor aspirationalism gone wrong, as many modern critics now argue. Rather, the Dred Scott Court erred chiefly because the majority gave in to the still-relevant temptation to subordinate honest legal reasoning to the pursuit of what the majority regarded as a noble and crucial political agenda-in this case, to protect slavery and the political power of the slave-holding South, and thereby preserve the Union.