ERASED
Dred Scott v. Sandford
60 U.S. 393 (1857) · 1857
The Court declared an entire category of human beings legally invisible.
“The negro has no rights which the white man is bound to respect.”
The Ruling
7–2: Black Americans — free or enslaved — are not citizens and have no right to sue in federal court. They have no rights the white man is bound to respect.
The Personhood Argument Not Made
This is the foundational American case of weaponized personhood: the formal, judicial declaration that a class of humans does not possess legal personhood. It is not discrimination within a system of rights. It is the elimination of legal visibility itself — the creation of a class of persons who cannot hold rights because they have been categorically excluded from the category of 'person.'
The Execution Gap Created
The 14th Amendment was ratified in 1868 specifically to reverse this decision — and was then immediately captured by corporations. The humans it was written to protect waited decades for the amendment's full force to apply to them.
Primary sources & research
Related cases
Part of The Personhood Prism, the companion to The Execution Gap by Thomas William Hornig. See all personhood cases →