How has the Dred Scott decision affected life today??

Answer 1

I roughly agree with the previous answer's two points, but with some modification. And I would suggest at least one more effect.

(1) Dred Scott played a role in helping to bring the Civil War, but how?

a) it galvanized the Republican Party in its opposition to the expansion of slavery into the territories (This was a core organizing principle of the Party in 1854, so the decision was basically saying that the BASIS for the party was unconstitutional!)

but MORE important
b) by ultimately splitting the Democratic Party so that they lost the Presidential contest.

The decision forced Stephen Douglas (under prodding from Lincoln in their debates) to find a way to rescue his distinctive notion of "popular sovereignty" (which included allowing the people of a territory to decide whether they wanted slavery or not). On the surface, the decision ruled this notion out too, but Douglas's new "doctrine" argued that, if a people really did NOT want slavery, their votes against

THIS position by Douglass cause a backlash from "fire-breathing" Southern Democrats to the point of trying to force the 1860 Dem convention to adopt a new form of William Yancey's "Alabama Platform", which insisted that the states support slavery... When the convention rebuffed them, they bolted and split the party, chose their own nominee and virtually GUARANTEED the victory of the Republican nominee (ended up being Lincoln, but that didn't matter). A unified Democratic Party would have won and prevented secession, but handing it to the Republicans in this way was almost certain to lead to secession.. and thence to war.

(2) I would pretty much limit the specific Constitutional responses that now affect us to the FOURTEENTH Amendment.

The decision did also affect what steps were taken AFTER the war to guarantee the rights of newly freed blacks. But I think the 13th amendment (which simply banned slavery) would have happened the same way with or without Dred Scott. As a matter of fact the real counter-Dred Scott amendment was the FOURTEENTH, though perhaps the 15th also owes a little something to it.

The fourteenth has been VERY important in recent decades as the basis Supreme Court decisions (rightly or wrongly in particular instances is debated). It was a major argument in the fight against "separate but equal" legislation. For instance, it was a major argument for the Brown vs. the Board of Education that ended school segregation.

But the amendment was then ALSO used in support of unrelated issues (and most certainly unrelated to the purpose of the amendment when passed in 1868), such as the 'right to abortion' (offered to support arguments for Roe v Wade and its precursors), and more recently for "gay right" including the claim of some to the right to 'same-sex marriage'.

The fifteenth amendment was to guarantee former slaves the right --as citizens-- to VOTE. It is less certain this owes anything to Dred Scott. The amendment was largely a way to "empower" these newly freed slaves to help them fend off renewed Southern efforts through such means as new "black codes", at limiting their rights and opportunities, . (Again, I'm not sure Dred Scott had much direct impact on this. But since that decision DID raise the issue of just who was regarded as a CITIZEN of the NATION -- Taney had said that NO black could be a "citizen" of the U.S., whatever the individual states might want to do-- perhaps it played some role in shaping this amendment.)

So, Dred Scott did, in this indirect way, eventually help to dismantle state systems of segregation-- which I think would widely be agreed on as a good and appropriate thing. But it also helped establish a national "policy" on matter such as "abortion rights" which the nation is still much divided over and many would NOT regard as a good or Constitutional thing.

BUT this may all be stretching the 'influence' of Dred Scott (and response/correction to it) much too far. Views on abortion rights, for instance, have little to do with the issues of Dred Scott, and those who support them would likely have appealed to OTHER grounds if the fourteenth amendment were not in place.

(3) Another possible affect of the Dred Scott decision (along with Plessy v Ferguson which allowed "separate but equal" ['Jim Crow'] laws), though less direct, is in providing OPPONENTS of major Supreme Court decisions with at least a political and rhetorical argument. Major example, again, is Roe v Wade. Opponents of this decision often compare it to the Dred Scott Decision, first as proof that the Supreme Court HAS made major blunders and that the abortion decisions may be the same. Also, the ARGUMENT of Dred Scott -- that he had no rights under the Constitution that a white man was bound to respect -- is seen as parallel to the denying of rights to the unborn.

Note: points 2 & 3 are not about "who is right" in these currently debated issues. But no matter what your view on these things I think we can all see how Dred Scott DID help to 'set the stage' for these debates and how they are carried out (how the courts play into them, etc).

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Perhaps one more

(4)? The decision played a significant role in gaining LINCOLN the 1860 nomination. His articulate opposition to the decision from his "House Divided Speech" of 1858 (kicking off his Senate race against Stephen Douglas) through the Lincoln-Douglas debates, to the "Cooper Union Address" of 1860, which gained him the East Coast interest and support to ultimately gain the Republican nomination.

So anything you credit Lincoln with doing for the nation --and any lasting contribution he made, ways the nation changed under him -- owes a significant "debt" to the Dred Scott decision. If you believe, for instance, that his sure-handedness, judgments and political skills were CRITICAL to the final Union success in the Civil War, there's an odd sense in which Dred Scott helped gain the final victory....

Answer 2

Dred Scott accelerated the path to the Civil War and led to the necessity of the 13th, 14th,and 15th amendments which have been used extensively in modern era equality cases..

Answer 3

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