Bust of former chief justice, proslavery Marylander removed from US Capitol

Dick Uliano | duliano@wtop.com

February 7, 2023, 5:15 AM

A former chief justice of the United States behind an infamous proslavery ruling has lost his place of honor in the U.S. Capitol.

The marble bust of Roger Taney of Maryland has been permanently removed from the Old Senate Chamber. It was Taney who wrote the Supreme Court’s Dred Scott decision in 1857.

Scott was a Black man who sought to sue for his freedom in federal court, but the high court’s decision declared that Scott couldn’t sue because as an enslaved man, he wasn’t a U.S. citizen. The decision also held that Congress couldn’t ban slavery.

Taney, an enslaver, wrote that Black people “had not rights which the white man was bound to respect.”



FILE — A marble bust of Chief Justice Roger Taney is displayed in the Old Supreme Court Chamber in the U.S. Capitol in Washington, on March 9, 2020. The House approved a bill on Dec. 14, 2020, that calls for removing the bust of Taney who wrote the infamous 1857 Dred Scott decision that upheld slavery and denied citizenship to Black Americans. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite, File)

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Dick Uliano
Whether anchoring the news inside the Glass-Enclosed Nerve Center or reporting from the scene in Maryland, Virginia or the District, Dick Uliano is always looking for the stories that really impact people's lives.

duliano@wtop.com