The outcome of the Dred Scott v. Sandford case decided in 1857, was that the Supreme Court ruled African Americans could not sue in federal court, effectively declaring that they were not U.S. citizens.

The Court also stated that the federal government had no authority to regulate slavery in the territories, thereby invalidating the Missouri Compromise. This decision intensified national tensions over slavery, deepened divisions between North and South, and is widely considered a catalyst for the Civil War. The ruling highlighted the systemic racism prevalent in the legal system of the time.