Question

What was the Dred Scott Case about?

Answer 1

The Dred Scott Case dealt with the issue of slavery. Here is some context: Prior to the case, slavery had been dealt with in different ways (see e.g., the Missouri Compromise). In 1854, the Kansas-Nebraska Act implemented the idea of popular sovereignty. Essentially, the citizens of a territory would vote as to whether the state would be free or slave.
Now to the case: Dred Scott was a slave who was taken with his master to a free state for three years prior to returning to a slave state. There was an idea floating around that if a slave was taken to a free state, the lack of recognition of slavery in that state would free the previously enslaved person. The Supreme Court not only found that this method of emancipation was not possible, but that black people could not be citizens of the United States of America. Because of this, the case was officially dismissed for lack of standing (a person who has standing is a person who is allowed to bring a particular lawsuit). The opinion, thus, went much further than it needed to in order to find a lack of standing. C.J. Taney's opinion explaining the decision was vitriolic, and, beyond that, many citizens were upset that SCOTUS poked their nose in the slavery issue after the country had "decided" upon popular sovereignty as the guiding principle re: the slavery/free state issue.