Which court case held that African Americans were not citizens and that Congress had no right to ban slavery in the territories?

• A. Dred Scott Decision
• B. Bleeding Kansas
• C. Freedmen's Bureau
• D. Abolition Movement

Answer: (A)

The key idea here is how citizenship and federal power over slavery in new territories were interpreted in the 19th century. In the Dred Scott decision, the Supreme Court ruled that African Americans, whether enslaved or free, could not be citizens and thus had no right to sue in federal courts. Even more decisively for the question, the Court said Congress lacked authority to ban or restrict slavery in the territories, effectively striking down attempts like the Missouri Compromise. This ruling intensified sectional tensions and helped push the nation toward the Civil War, though it was later overturned by the Fourteenth Amendment, which grants birthright citizenship to all people born in the United States, including former slaves. Bleeding Kansas describes violent conflicts over slavery in Kansas, Freedmen's Bureau was a government agency created to aid formerly enslaved people, and the Abolition Movement was a broader effort to end slavery; none of these establish the constitutional ruling about citizenship and congressional power the way the Dred Scott decision does.