Why cant more Supreme Court Justices be like Roger B. Taney?

[therealUT]

Most who have read my threads regarding race relations and/or the Civil War will understand that I do not esteem the Confederate cause. I feel that slavery is absolutely evil in every way, therefore, it might surprise some that I regard Chief Justice Taney as the model that all Supreme Court Justices should strive to become.

Early in his life Taney freed his slaves and hired a portion of them back to work on his estate. Not only did he pay them living wages, he also set up pension plans for each worker, and had them all educated.

During his career as a lawyer, Taney defended a man who had incited a slave rebellion. In the opening argument, Taney stated that slavery was a "blot on our national character."

Of course, Taney was the Chief Justice who wrote the decision in the Dred Scott case. However, looking at the life he lived, one must come to the conclusion that he was sincerely attempting to interpret the law and the Constitution in making his decision. His decision most certainly did not reflect his own views of slavery nor the way he lived his life. Supreme Court Justices need to understand that it is their job to interpret the Constitution, nothing more, nothing less. I believe Taney is the single greatest example of this concept.

Here is the excerpt of the most controversial passage in his decision, in full context:

In the opinion of the court, the legislation and histories of the times, and the language used in the Declaration of Independence, show, that neither the class of persons who had been imported as slaves, nor their descendants, whether they had become free or not, were then acknowledged as a part of the people, nor intended to be included in the general words used in that memorable instrument.

It is difficult at this day to realize the state of public opinion in relation to that unfortunate race, which prevailed in the civilized and enlightened portions of the world at the time of the Declaration of Independence, and when the Constitution of the United States was framed and adopted. But the public history of every European nation displays it in a manner too plain to be mistaken.

They had for more than a century before been regarded as beings of an inferior order, and altogether unfit to associate with the white race, either in social or political relations; and so far inferior, that they had no rights which the white man was bound to respect; and that the negro might justly and lawfully be reduced to slavery for his benefit. He was bought and sold, and treated as an ordinary article of merchandise and traffic, whenever a profit could be made by it. This opinion was at that time fixed and universal in the civilized portion of the white race. It was regarded as an axiom in morals as well as in politics, which no one thought of disputing, or supposed to be open to dispute; and men in every grade and position in society daily and habitually acted upon it in their private pursuits, as well as in matters of public concern, without doubting for a moment the correctness of this opinion.

And in no nation was this opinion more firmly fixed or more [60 U.S. 393, 408] uniformly acted upon than by the English Government and English people. They not only seized them on the coast of Africa, and sold them or held them in slavery for their own use; but they took them as ordinary articles of merchandise to every country where they could make a profit on them, and were far more extensively engaged in this commerce than any other nation in the world.

The opinion thus entertained and acted upon in England was naturally impressed upon the colonies they founded on this side of the Atlantic. And, accordingly, a negro of the African race was regarded by them as an article of property, and held, and bought and sold as such, in every one of the thirteen colonies which united in the Declaration of Independence, and afterwards formed the Constitution of the United States. The slaves were more or less numerous in the different colonies, as slave labor was found more or less profitable. But no one seems to have doubted the correctness of the prevailing opinion of the time.

The legislation of the different colonies furnishes positive and indisputable proof of this fact.

 

[therealUT]

:bump3:

 

[vader]

They had for more than a century before been regarded as beings of an inferior order, and altogether unfit to associate with the white race, either in social or political relations; and so far inferior, that they had no rights which the white man was bound to respect; and that the negro might justly and lawfully be reduced to slavery for his benefit. He was bought and sold, and treated as an ordinary article of merchandise and traffic, whenever a profit could be made by it. This opinion was at that time fixed and universal in the civilized portion of the white race. It was regarded as an axiom in morals as well as in politics, which no one thought of disputing, or supposed to be open to dispute; and men in every grade and position in society daily and habitually acted upon it in their private pursuits, as well as in matters of public concern, without doubting for a moment the correctness of this opinion

Why would they doubt the correctness, they were God fearing people with scripture on their side:

Leviticus 25:44

44 " 'Your male and female slaves are to come from the nations around you; from them you may buy slaves.

45 You may also buy some of the temporary residents living among you and members of their clans born in your country, and they will become your property.

 

[therealUT]

Why would they doubt the correctness, they were God fearing people with scripture on their side:

Exactly why scripture, taken fundamentally and literally, is scary in the hands of many people.