Dred Scott v. Sandford, , was a decision by the United States
Supreme Court that ruled that people of African descent imported
into the United States and held as slaves, or their
descendants—whether or not they were slaves—could never be
citizens of the United States, and that the United States
Congress had no authority to prohibit slavery in federal
territories. The Court also ruled that slaves could not sue in
court, and that slaves—as chattel or private property—could not
be taken away from their owners without due process. The Court
in the Dred Scott decision sided with border ruffians in the
Bleeding Kansas dispute who were afraid a free Kansas would be a
haven for runaway slaves from Missouri. The Supreme Court's
decision was written by Chief Justice Roger B. Taney. Dred Scott
was indirectly overruled in the Slaughter-House Cases, which
noted that Dred Scott's holding was superseded by the passage of
the Thirteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution in
1865, which abolished slavery, and the Fou