death_date birth_date signature appointer term_end alma_mater death_place term_start spouse image name predecessor birth_place president party office successor religion article_title birth_name
12 october 1864 17 march 1777 roger b taney signature.svg andrew jackson october 14 , 1833 august 1 , 1831 12 , 1864 june 25 , 1834 november dickinson college washington , d.c. , u.s. march 20 , 1831 june 18 , 1831 15 , 1836 september 23 , 1833 july anne key file brady-handy . jpg : roger_b . _ taney _ - _ roger taney john marshall william duane john berrien john eaton calvert county , maryland , u.s. andrew jackson andrew jackson andrew jackson federalist 1864 -rrb- -lrb- before 1828 -rrb- democratic -lrb- 1828 -- 5th states secretary of the treasury 11th united states attorney general chief united states secretary of war acting justice of the supreme court 12th united salmon chase levi woodbury benjamin butler lewis cass roman catholicism roger b. taney
 roger brooke taney
roger b. taney

roger brooke taney -lrb- ; march 17 , 1777 -- october 12 , 1864 -rrb- was the fifth chief justice of the supreme court , holding that office from 1836 until his death in 1864 .
he was the eleventh united states attorney general .
he is most remembered for delivering the infamous majority opinion in `` dred scott v. sandford '' -lrb- 1857 -rrb- , that ruled , among other things , that african-americans , having been considered inferior at the time the constitution was drafted , were not part of the original community of citizens and , whether free or slave , could not be considered citizens of the united states , which created an uproar among abolitionists and the free states of the northern u.s. taney was a jacksonian democrat when he became chief justice .
taney was a believer in states ' rights but also the union , a slaveholder who manumitted his slaves .
from prince frederick , maryland , he had practiced law and politics simultaneously and succeeded in both .
after abandoning the federalist party as a losing cause , he rose to the top of the state 's jacksonian machine .
as u.s. attorney general -lrb- 1831 -- 1833 -rrb- and then secretary of the treasury -lrb- 1833 -- 1834 -rrb- , taney became one of andrew jackson 's closest advisers , assisting jackson in his populist crusade against the powerful bank of the united states . ''
... he brought to the chief justiceship a high intelligence and legal acumen , kindness and humility , patriotism , and a determination to be a great chief justice that enabled him to mold the modest raw material of the court into an effective and prestigious institution . ''
-- > in `` dred scott v. sandford '' , an african-american slave named dred scott had appealed to the supreme court in hopes of being granted his freedom based on his having been brought by his masters to live in free territories .
the taney court ruled that persons of african descent could not be , nor were ever intended to be , citizens under the u.s. constitution , and thus the plaintiff -lrb- scott -rrb- was without legal standing to file a suit .
the framers of the constitution , taney famously wrote , believed that blacks `` 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 profit could be made by it . ''
the court also declared the missouri compromise -lrb- 1820 -rrb- unconstitutional , thus permitting slavery in all of the country 's territories .
taney died during the final months of the american civil war on the same day that his home state of maryland abolished slavery .
