Roger
B.
Taney
(Image
via
Getty)
When
lawyers,
or
maybe
more
accurately
law
students,
get
together
and
are
feeling
pedantic,
the
subject
of
all-time
best
and
worst
Supreme
Court
justices
seems
to
come
up.
One
justice
that
is
*always*
on
the
worst-of
list
is
Roger
Taney.
The
author
of
the
Supreme
Court’s
biggest
black
eye,
Dred
Scott
v.
Sanford
(1857),
is
forever
associated
with
the
scourge
of
slavery
and
it’s
frightfully
obvious
that
in
the
year
of
our
lord
2023
there
should
not
be
tributes
to
his
memory.
Remember,
this
is
the
guy
who
wrote
Black
people
were
not
citizens
of
the
United
States,
writing,
“We
think
[people
of
African
ancestry]
are
not,
and
that
they
are
not
included,
and
were
not
intended
to
be
included,
under
the
word
“citizens”
in
the
Constitution,
and
can
therefore
claim
none
of
the
rights
and
privileges
which
that
instrument
provides
for
and
secures
to
citizens
of
the
United
States…”
And
he
continued
with
some
wildly
racist
shit
that
Americans
should
—
at
a
minimum
—
be
embarrassed
over:
They
had
for
more
than
a
century
before
been
regarded
as
beings
of
an
inferior
order,
and
altogether
unfit
to
associate
with
the
white
race,
either
in
social
or
political
relations;
and
so
far
inferior,
that
they
had
no
rights
which
the
white
man
was
bound
to
respect;
and
that
the
negro
might
justly
and
lawfully
be
reduced
to
slavery.
.
.
.
He
was
bought
and
sold,
and
treated
as
an
ordinary
article
of
merchandise
and
traffic,
whenever
a
profit
could
be
made
by
it.
This
opinion
was
at
that
time
fixed
and
universal
in
the
civilized
portion
of
the
white
race.
No
one
who
wrote
that
has
any
right
to
be
remembered
as
a
positive
figure
in
American
history.
Congress
has
gotten
the
memo,
replacing
the
bust
of
Taney
in
the
U.S.
Capitol
with
Thurgood
Marshall.
Baltimore
and
Annapolis,
in
Taney’s
native
Maryland,
removed
their
statutes
of
the
justice
in
2017.
But
yet,
for
some
reason,
a
street
named
after
Taney
still
exists
in
Philadelphia.
What
in
the
actual
hell?
And
it’s
not
like
the
residents
of
Taney
Street
*like*
it.
As
reported
by
the
Philadelphia
Citizen,
they’ve
been
working
to
get
the
name
changed,
only
to
be
stymied
by
the
bureaucracy
of
it
all:
For
three
years,
a
group
of
volunteer
residents
and
neighbors
of
generally
charming
Taney
Street
have
been
trying
to
change
their
blocks’
name.
The
group
has
surveyed
neighbors
online.
They’ve
written
letters.
They’ve
door-knocked
galore,
and
gotten
nearly
everyone
to
join
team
Rename.
They’ve
taken
time
away
from
work
and
family
and
themselves
…
simply
to
get
something
done
that
most
everyone
believes
should
be
done.All
that’s
needed
for
the
change
is
City
Council’s
approval
—
which
is
all
but
guaranteed
if
the
three
City
Council
members
whose
districts
encompass
Taney
Street
give
the
thumbs-up
to
a
new
name.
Instead,
almost
inexplicably,
folks
on
City
Council
and
their
representatives
have
repeatedly
described
the
process
of
renaming
Taney
Street
as
“complex,”
“not
easy,”
“unprecedented”
and
“a
Pandora’s
box.”
But
all
of
this
raises
the
inevitable
question…
why
IS
there
a
Taney
Street
in
Philly?
He
never
lived
there,
as
the
Citizen
reports,
“No
one
has
unearthed
any
record
of
Roger
B.
Taney
doing
a
damn
thing
in
the
2-1-5.
Naming
a
street
for
him
in
1858
would
be
like
naming
a
street,
I
don’t
know,
Tom
Brady
Way
…
in
2019.”
And
no
one
can
figure
out
*why*
it
was
ever
named
that:
To
date,
no
one
involved
in
this
project
can
say
for
sure
how
Taney
Street
got
its
name.
We
do
know
it
was
named
(well,
renamed,
from
Minor
Street)
in
1858,
one
year
after
Dred
Scott,
back
when
Chief
Justice
Taney
was
a
very
famous
(infamous)
American.
Famous
for,
you
know,
writing
the
decision
that
said
an
African
American,
even
when
he’d
moved
to
a
free
state,
was
still
not
free
—
a
ruling
that
is
considered
a
major
trigger
for
the
Civil
War.
It
certainly
feels
like
this
trolling
move
has
gone
on
long
enough.
But
the
hoops
the
city
is
making
the
volunteers
jump
through
for
the
seemingly
obvious
change
is
approaching
Kafka
levels.
But
as
a
lifelong
New
Yorker,
it
just
reinforces
my
belief
about
Philly
(and
acknowledged
in
the
Citizen
article)
—
Philadelphia
just
can’t
have
nice
things:
“We
have
done
the
work
here,”
says
[volunteer
Samaya
Brown].
“We
have
gone
above
and
beyond
what
a
typical
civic
engagement
should
be.”Maybe
that’s
the
point.
Maybe
it’s
a
case
of
if
the
people
in
charge
put
up
enough
obstacles,
the
people
who
want
change
will
just
drop
it.
Maybe
this
is
why
(again)
we
Philadelphians
can’t
have
nice
things
…“This
kind
of
process
definitely
deters
other
efforts
to
improve
our
communities,”
says
[Rename
Taney
co-founder
Ben
Keys]
…
“If
Philadelphia
is
going
to
be
a
place
that
gets
things
done,
it
needs
to
get
things
like
this
done.”
Surely
even
Philly
can
get
their
shit
together
on
this
one.
Kathryn
Rubino
is
a
Senior
Editor
at
Above
the
Law,
host
of
The
Jabot
podcast,
and
co-host
of
Thinking
Like
A
Lawyer.
AtL
tipsters
are
the
best,
so
please
connect
with
her.
Feel
free
to
email
her
with
any
tips,
questions,
or
comments
and
follow
her
on
Twitter
@Kathryn1 or
Mastodon
@Kathryn1@mastodon.social.