This article from the Wall Street Journal On-Line edition points out that the yesterday's gun control case from the D.C. circuit cites Dred Scott v. Sanford approvingly.
This is quite a turn about, considering Dred Scott's ignoble conclusion that black people weren't people. But that isnt' the portion of the case used.
What was used was a section where the court determined that the government lacked the authority to "abolish a slaveholder's property rights in his slaves merely by outlawing slavery in the new territories." Dred Scott cites various portions of the Bill of Rights, including the right to bear arms.
"Although Dred Scott is as infamous as it was erroneous in holding that African-Americans are not citizens, this passage expresses the view, albeit in passing, that the Second Amendment contains a personal right,"
says noted judge Laurence Silberman in yesterday's decision.
I don't take this as an attempt to rehabilitate Dred Scott, although there may be some liberals who say this. The important part of that infamous decision for Silberman was its recognition of various rights as individual, not state rights.
I hardly expect to see a plethora of cases citing Dred Scott now, but it point out that even discredited cases can have valid points in them.
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