Which ruling stated that African Americans were not citizens and that Congress had no right to ban slavery in the territories?

• A. Abolition Movement
• B. Dred Scott Decision
• C. Ex Parte Merryman (1861)
• D. 14th Amendment

Answer: (B)

The key idea here is a landmark Supreme Court ruling that defined who could be considered a citizen and what the federal government could regulate in new territories. In Dred Scott v. Sandford, the Court held that African Americans—whether enslaved or free—were not citizens of the United States. Because they weren’t citizens, the Court insisted, Congress did not have the power to prohibit or regulate slavery in new territories. The decision framed enslaved people as property under the Constitution, which limited federal authority to ban or restrict slavery in new lands. This ruling deepened the sectional crisis and helped push the nation toward the Civil War.

The other options don’t match this ruling. An abolition movement is a social campaign against slavery rather than a judicial decision about citizenship and territorial status. Ex Parte Merryman dealt with the limits of presidential and military power during the Civil War, not with citizenship or territorial slavery. The Fourteenth Amendment, adopted after the Civil War, granted citizenship to anyone born in the United States and guaranteed equal protection under the law—essentially opposing the Dred Scott reasoning.