Slavery and the Supreme Court

Someone on the radio recently said that the U.S. Supreme Court was responsible for eliminating slavery.

I did not hear where that person went to school. But I knew nothing could be farther from the truth. Slavery was abolished by constitutional amendment. The Supreme Court held that slavery was constitutional.

It used to be that Congress made laws and the Supreme Court interpreted them in the light of the United States Constitution; but recently citizens seem to have gotten the idea that the Supreme Court makes laws, and not only that, it makes better laws than the Congress. Since slavery was a bad practice, they reason, only the Supreme Court could have ended the practice.

They never heard of the Dred Scott decision.

It appears that ignorance is responsible for the error in thought about the purpose of the Supreme Court. Certainly, nine unelected lawyers should have no legal ability to make laws in this country. Only elected representatives can make law.

Perhaps this part of government was not taught in our schools. The only alternative is that many people could have been sick on the day it was taught. I suspect it was not taught.


Supreme Court Government Culture Education