Question: Which was tried first: Goodridge v. Department of Public Health or Dred Scott v. Sandford?

 It held that "a negro, whose ancestors were imported into [the U.S.], and sold as slaves", whether enslaved or free, could not be an American citizen and therefore had no standing to sue in federal court, and that the federal government had no power to regulate slavery in the federal territories acquired after the creation of the United States.  Dred Scott, an enslaved man of "the negro African race" who had been taken by his owners to free states and territories, attempted to sue for his freedom. Dred Scott v. Sandford, 60 U.S. 393 (1857) , also known simply as the Dred Scott case, was a landmark decision by the United States Supreme Court on US labor law and constitutional law.  In a 7–2 decision written by Chief Justice Roger B. Taney, the court denied Scott's request.  The decision was only the second time that the Supreme Court had ruled an Act of Congress to be unconstitutional. <SEP> Kerrigan v. Commissioner of Public Health, 289 Conn. 135, 957 A.2d 407, is a 2008 decision by the Connecticut Supreme Court holding that allowing same-sex couples to form same-sex unions but not marriages violates the Connecticut Constitution.  It was the third time that a ruling by the highest court of a U.S. state legalized same-sex marriage, following Massachusetts in "Goodridge v. Department of Public Health" (2003) and California in "In re Marriage Cases" (2008).  This case legalized same-sex marriage in Connecticut. <SEP> The Freeport Doctrine was articulated by Stephen A. Douglas at the second of the Lincoln-Douglas debates on August 27, 1858, in Freeport, Illinois.  Former one-term U.S. Representative Abraham Lincoln was campaigning to take Douglas' U.S. Senate seat by strongly opposing all attempts to expand the geographic area in which slavery was practiced.  Lincoln tried to force Douglas to choose between the principle of popular sovereignty proposed by the Kansas-Nebraska Act (which left the fate of slavery in a U.S. territory up to its inhabitants), and the majority decision of the United States Supreme Court in the case of "Dred Scott v. Sandford", which stated that slavery could not legally be excluded from U.S. territories (since Douglas professed great respect for Supreme Court decisions, and accused the Republicans of disrespecting the court, yet this aspect of the "Dred Scott" decision was contrary to Douglas' views and politically unpopular in Illinois).  Instead of making a direct choice, Douglas' response stated that despite the court's ruling, slavery could be prevented from any territory by the refusal of the people living in that territory to pass laws favorable to slavery.  Likewise, if the people of the territory supported slavery, legislation would provide for its continued existence. <SEP> Goodridge v. Dept. of Public Health, 798 N.E.2d 941 (Mass. 2003), is a landmark state appellate court case dealing with same-sex marriage in Massachusetts.  The November 18, 2003, decision was the first by a U.S. state's highest court to find that same-sex couples had the right to marry.  Despite numerous attempts to delay the ruling, and to reverse it, the first marriage licenses were issued to same-sex couples on May 17, 2004, and the ruling has been in full effect since that date.