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Thursday, September 6

7–8:30 pm Auditorium

Was Dred Scott Decided Correctly?

Rethinking Slavery, the Constitution, and the Coming of the Civil War

150 years ago the U.S. Supreme Court made a decision that many blame for dividing the country and contributing to the start of the Civil War.

In 1857, the U.S. Supreme Court decided that slave Dred Scott had no right to sue for his freedom in federal court because he, like all African Americans, was not a citizen of the United States. The court also declared the 1820 Missouri Compromise unconstitutional, thus permitting slavery in all of the country's territories. American legal history scholar Paul Finkelman discusses the decision, which many blame for inflaming the political divide over slavery and contributing to the start of the Civil War.

Paul Finkelman
Keynote Speaker Paul Finkelman

is the President William McKinley Professor of Law and Public Policy and senior fellow in the Government Law Center at Albany Law School. He has written extensively about the law of American slavery, the First Amendment, American race relations, American legal history, the U.S. Constitution, and freedom of religion.

» About Professor Paul Finkelman

Media contact:       Mary.Grant @wmitchell.edu       (651) 290-6400

William Mitchell College of Law, founded in 1900, is an independent, private law school located in St. Paul, Minnesota. The college is known for cultivating practical wisdom and for creating an environment that welcomes both traditional and non-traditional law students. The largest law school in Minnesota, William Mitchell has produced many distinguished leaders at the bench and bar and in the business and civic arenas, among them the 15th Chief Justice of the United States, Warren E. Burger ’31.