The Judiciary, Discrimination Law and Statutory Interpretation - 9781138324565

Taylor & Francis

The Judiciary, Discrimination Law and Statutory InterpretationEasy Cases Making Bad Law\nAuthor(s): Michael Connolly\nFormat: Hardback\nPublisher: Taylor & Francis Ltd, United Kingdom\nImprint: Routledge\nISBN-13: 9781138324565, 978-1138324565\nSynopsis\nIn 1856, the US Supreme Court denied Dred Scott, now free of slavery, his Constitutional rights, solely because he was black. According to the Court, when the Constitution was drafted, some 60 years earlier, its authors would not have intended that a subordinate and inferior class of beings qualified as citizens of the United States. Thus, the meaning of language drafted over half a century before was frozen in time.\n\nThis case, perhaps more than any other, demonstrates that the matter of statutory interpretation is critical, technical, and, sometimes, highly emotive. The case is not a mere nugget from history to indulge our disgust with values of another age, and with it a satisfaction of our progress to todays higher moral gr.