Sunday, February 17, 2019

ROGER BROOKE TANEY

While reading the classic black historical encomium EMANCIPATION :THE MAKING OF THE BLACK LAWYER, 1844-1944, by J. Clay Smith (1993), pp. 100-102, I read how the admission of Dr. John S. Rock (and attorney) to the US Supreme Court was facilitated by the death of Chief Justice Roger Taney in 1864. Abolitionist Salmon P. Chase replaced Taney as Chief Justice. He admitted John Swett Rock to the Court on February 1, 1865, the same day that President Lincoln signed a joint resolution of Congress approving the 13th Amendment abolishing slavery. Taney was appointed by Andrew Jackson as Chief Justice after the death of John Marshall. Taney was married to Francis Scott Key's sister and had served as Attorney General, Treasury Secretary and other Democratic posts under Andrew Jackson; the court 28 years as Chief Justice, 2nd to Marshall. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roger_B._Taney?fbclid=IwAR0YGTVY4sr1WhowYE0G_M79ILjQrgFIy_2fgNw3C8PIDsA1hByDLFw5aWQ