Description
Taylor & Francis Ltd The Judiciary, Discrimination Law And Statutory Interpretation : Easy Cases Making Bad Law by Michael Connolly
In 1856, the US Supreme Court denied Dred Scott, now free of slavery, his Constitutional rights, solely because he was black. According to the Court, when the Constitution was drafted, some 60 years earlier, its authors would not have intended that 'a subordinate and inferior class of beings' qualified as citizens of the United States. Thus, the meaning of language drafted over half a century before was frozen in time._x000D_
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This case, perhaps more than any other, demonstrates that the matter of statutory interpretation is critical, technical, and, sometimes, highly emotive. The case is not a mere nugget from history to indulge our disgust with values of anoth.show more