tailieunhanh - Gale Encyclopedia Of American Law 3Rd Edition Volume 5 P18

Gale Encyclopedia of American Law Volume 5 P18 fully illuminates today's leading cases, major statutes, legal terms and concepts, notable persons involved with the law, important documents and more. Legal issues are fully discussed in easy-to-understand language, including such high-profile topics as the Americans with Disabilities Act, capital punishment, domestic violence, gay and lesbian rights, physician-assisted suicide and thousands more. | 158 GRIER ROBERT COOPER Robert C. Grier. THE LIBRARY OF CONGRESS Grier was born March 5 1794 in Cumberland County Pennsylvania. He graduated from Dickinson College in 1812 and was admitted to the bar in Bloomsburg Pennsylvania in 1817. A year later he relocated to Danville Pennsylvania and established a successful law practice. In 1833 he was appointed judge of the Allegheny County Pennsylvania district court where he remained until 1846. With the death in 1844 of Supreme Court justice henry Baldwin who was a Pennsylvania native President james polk sought to appoint a Democrat from that state. After failing to find a candidate who could pass Senate confirmation Polk turned in 1846 to the noncontroversial and relatively unknown Grier. During his term on the Supreme Court Grier held a centrist position. A strong believer in states rights he generally was opposed to federal legislation that intruded on state police powers. This philosophy led him to side with the Southern states in upholding their right to keep slaves and to recapture runaway slaves who had escaped to Northern states. Grier has been criticized for his actions during the deliberation of Dred Scott generally recognized as the most important pre-Civil War case concerning the legitimacy of slavery and the rights of African Americans. The circumstances of the ruling as well as the ruling itself increased the division between the Northern and Southern states. Dred Scott was a slave owned by an army surgeon john Emerson who resided in Missouri. In 1836 Emerson took Scott to Fort Snelling in what is now Minnesota but was then a territory in which slavery had been expressly forbidden by the Missouri Compromise legislation of 1820. In 1846 Scott sued for his freedom in Missouri state court arguing that his residence in a free territory released him from slavery. The Missouri Supreme Court rejected his argument and Scott appealed to the . Supreme Court. Grier and the other members of the Court heard .