I love election years. The conversations that take place about the candidates and issues often lead to learning new things about history and government.
A few days ago I exchanged some comments with Mike Saunders about looking at "landmark" Supreme Court decisions in a spreadsheet format: A snapshot, if you will, of how each justice voted, viewed beside the name and political party of the appointing president ....
To start playing with the idea, I reached back in history to Dred Scott V. Sandford, of 1857, certainly one of the most infamous decisions in our country's history.
From Wikipedia: Dred Scott v. Sandford,[1] 60 U.S. (19 How.) 393 (1857), 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[2]-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
Here is my spreadsheet
It soon became apparent that including a column indicating the appointing president's political party was problematic for this point in time, since in the first half of the 19th century, American political parties were undergoing great changes. For example, Wikipedia lists Martin Van Buren's party affiliations as Democratic-Republican, Democratic, and Free Soil.
To place the Dred Scott decision in a historical timeline, consider this:
The American Revolutionary War took place 1775 - 1783. The oldest justice at the time of the Dred Scott decision, Chief Justice Taney, was born during the Revolutionary War.
James Buchanan was inaugurated President March 4, 1857.
The Dred Scott decision was delivered March 6, 1857.
Abraham Lincoln was elected in 1860.
Fighting in The American Civil War began in April, 1861.
Robert E. Lee surrendered April 9, 1865, ending the American Civil War.
Abraham Lincoln was assassinated on April 15, 1865.
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The full text of opinions written by each justice are archived at Cornell Law Library here.
FindLaw case summary here.
Further reading: The Supreme's Greatest Hits
This historical review would not have been possible without Wikipedia. Carolyn, I know you're a Wikipedia editor, my hats off to you and all editors!!
Mike, now that I've sorted the idea out a bit, I'm going to tackle KELO. Stand by!
Cheryl Johnson
;)
;)
Cheryl - I never really understood what the Whig Party (Fillmore) was all about, other than a strong federal government as opposed to states. Thanks for the spreadsheet format.