Roger Brooke Taney

Taney, Roger Brooke (1777–1864), chief justice of the U.S. Supreme Court (1836–64) whose decision in the Dred Scott case (1857) helped bring on the Civil War. As President Andrew Jackson's secretary of the treasury (1833–35), he crushed the Second Bank of the United States. As chief justice, he steered a middle course on States' Rights and continued Chief Justice John Marshall's liberal interpretation of the Constitution.

See also: Dred Scott case; Supreme Court of the United States.