Supreme Court cases of the American Civil War

Okay, so during the American Civil War, which happened a long time ago, there were a lot of arguments about how things should be decided and who had the power to make those decisions. One really big group of important decision makers was the Supreme Court. They were kind of like the big bosses of deciding what was right and wrong in the country.

One of the most important Supreme Court cases during this time was called Dred Scott v. Sandford. Dred Scott was a man who was enslaved, which means he didn't have freedom and had to do whatever his owner told him to do. He wanted to be free, so he went to court and asked the Supreme Court to help him. But the Supreme Court said no, that he couldn't be free because he was considered to be like property, not a person with rights.

Another important case was about the power of the President during wartime. President Abraham Lincoln wanted to do some things to help win the war, like putting people in jail without a trial if they seemed like they were helping the other side. But some people thought that wasn't fair or right, and they took it to the Supreme Court. In the end, the Supreme Court said that the President did have some extra powers during wartime, but that it was important to make sure those powers didn't take away people's basic rights.

Overall, the Supreme Court was really important during the Civil War because they helped decide some big questions about what was right and wrong in the country.