Fillmore Administration - Fillmore and the Judiciary
Fillmore and the Judiciary
President Fillmore appointed one person to the Supreme Court, Benjamin R. Curtis of Massachusetts. When the famous Dred Scott case was decided in 1857, rendering the Missouri Compromise unconstitutional, Curtis wrote one of the two dissenting opinions (See also, James Buchanan Administration). Curtis also later served as President Andrew Johnson's chief defense counsel when Johnson was impeached.
The most significant Supreme Court decision handed down during Fillmore's presidency was Cooley v. Board of Wardens of Port of Philadelphia (1851). In this case Justice Curtis ruled that where commerce was strictly national or interstate the federal government had exclusive jurisdiction (the authority to apply the law), but that in local commerce a state legislates in the absence of any federal...
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