House approves removal of bust of Supreme Court justice who wrote Dred Scott decision, protecting slavery
CBSN
The House has approved the removal from the Capitol of the bust of former Chief Justice Roger Brooke Taney, who wrote the infamous Dred Scott Supreme Court decision denying African Americans U.S. citizenship and protecting the institution of slavery.
The measure, passed by a voice vote Wednesday afternoon, directs the Joint Committee on Congress on the Library to remove his bust and replace it with a one depicting late Justice Thurgood Marshall, the first Black American to serve on the Supreme Court. The Senate passed the legislation last week, meaning it now heads to President Biden's desk. The House passed a similar version last year, but the Senate failed to take it up.
"While the removal of Chief Justice Roger Brooke Taney's bust from the Capitol does not relieve the Congress of the historical wrongs it committed to protect the institution of slavery, it expresses Congress's recognition of one of the most notorious wrongs to have ever taken place in one of its rooms, that of Chief Justice Roger Brooke Taney's Dred Scott v. Sandford decision," the bill, authored by Democratic Sens. Ben Cardin and Chris Van Hollen, reads.
