The Dred Scott Case against Sandford (also known as The Dred Scott Case) was a court case, crucial in the history of the United States, resolved by the Supreme Court of that country in 1857, in which it was decided to deprive any inhabitant of African descent, whether they were slaves or not, the right to citizenship and the authority to prohibit slavery in federal territories of the country was removed from Congress. The decision was drafted by Chief Justice Roger B. Taney. The fury that caused this failure among the abolitionists was an important factor in the explosion of the Civil War.
Scott's decision increased tensions between pro-slave and anti-slavery factions in both the north and the south, further pushing the country to the brink of civil war. Finally, the Fourteenth Amendment to the Constitution resolved the problem of black citizenship through Section 1 of that Amendment: "All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to their jurisdiction, are citizens of the United States and of the State where they reside ... ".