The words “people of the United States” and “citizens” are synonymous terms, and mean the same thing. They both describe the political body who, according to our republican institutions, form the sovereignty, and who hold the power and conduct the Government through their representatives.

The case was dismissed on procedural grounds because a majority of the Supreme Court 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 did not have standing to sue in federal court.

What was Sandford’s argument in the Scott v. Sandford case? A person’s property cannot be taken away without due process. had been settled.

Taney had concluded that broad precedent on the slave question was quite necessary. Dred Scott’s suit failed because Scott lacked standing to bring a suit in federal court, Taney said. Scott was not a citizen under the meaning of the Constitution. Nor were any other Africans or their descendants.

The Dred Scott Decision outraged abolitionists, who saw the Supreme Court’s ruling as a way to stop debate about slavery in the territories. The divide between North and South over slavery grew and culminated in the secession of southern states from the Union and the creation of the Confederate States of America.

Chief Justice Roger Brooke Taney’s opinion for the court was arguably the worst he ever wrote. But he argued that state citizenship had nothing to do with national citizenship and that African Americans could not sue in federal court because they could not be citizens of the United States.