Abelman+v.+Booth

**Ableman v. Booth**

**who is this?**

March 7th, 1859
 * Date of court case: **


 * Chief Justice: **

Roger B Tanney: __**Tanney**__ was born on Match 17, 1777 in Calvert County ,Maryland. He was admitted to the bar in 1799, after graduating from Dickinson College. Tanney was the country’s fifth Chief of Justice. He served from 1836 to 1864 as Chief Justice. Tanney was a slave holder but later released his slaves due to his view of slavery. He was nominated by President Andrew Jackson in 1836. He was the first Chief of Justice to be a Roman Catholic. He held many other honorable positions in his lifetime including the Secretary of war in 1831, Attorney General in 1831, and Secretary of the __treasury__ in 1833.


 * Important Documents or amendments: **

The Supremacy Clause states that the federal law is the highest law in the U.S. The Supreme Court of Wisconsin broke the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850, which states that any runaway slave that is caught must be sent back to his or her rightful master. The Supreme Court of Wisconsin broke the __constitution__ by letting the slave go up to Canada and not sending him back to his master. The __c__ __onstitution__ of the United States is also important because the state Supreme Court of Wisconsin broke the constitution by stating that the Fugitive Slave Act is unconstitutional.


 * Summary: **

In 1852 Joshua Glover, a runaway slave from St. Louis Missouri, escaped to Racine Wisconsin. In 1854 a slave catcher found Glover, and threw him in prison. A mob of 5,000 including abolitionist Sherman Booth, broke into the jail in which Glover was held, rescued him, and helped him travel to Canada. Booth was captured, and thrown in jail. US Marshal Steven Ableman was unhappy with this and appealed to the state Supreme Court. **(gee, you think?)** The state Supreme Court said the Fugitive Slave Act was not taken very seriously in the Northen states, as it was very strict in the Southern states. The state Supreme Court broke the law because they deemed the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850 unconstitutional. The case eventually went the Supreme Court in 1859; the Supreme Court of Wisconsin was accused of making the power of the state greater than the power of the federal court. The Supreme Court used the Supremacy Clause to support them, which stated that the federal law is the supreme law of America. The court also said that if the states had more power then bad things would happen. In the end it was decided that Wisconsin did not have the power to break the federal law, and they couldn’t hold the Fugitive Slave Act unconstitutional. Sherman Booth was pardoned from his offense in 1861 by President James Buchanan.

**Main issue:**

The main issue of the case was that the Supreme Court of Wisconsin broke the law by not abiding by the Fugitive Slave Act and deeming it unconstitutional . They did not have to power to do this but they still did it anyway, which caused the problem. The Supreme Court of Wisconsin broke the Supremacy Clause by putting their word above that of the Supreme Court of the United States of America. Sherman Booth was in jailed but was released on a __wit__ of Habeas Corpus, or in other words lack of evidence; It was deemed unconstitutional for a Supreme Court to give a wit of Habeas Corpus to a prisoner that is under federal custody. The Supreme Court of Wisconsin was wrong for letting Booth leaving prison.

**Court Decision:**

The decision of the court was a state Supreme Court cannot free a prisoner from confinement by the United States government.

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">**Who voted what:**

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">The court came to a decision of 9 to 0 a state not being able to free a prisoner from confinement of a U.S government.

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">**Members of the court (not including the CJ?) :** <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">John Mclean- 1829-1861 <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">James M Wayne-1835-1867 <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">John Catron-1837-1865 <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">Peter V. Daniel-1841-1860 <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">Samuel Nelson-1845-1872 <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">Robert C. Grier-1846-1870 <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">John A. Campbell-1853-1861 <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">Nathan Clifford-1858-1881


 * <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif;"> Personal Opinion of the case: **

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">We have mixed feelings about this case. We think the __Supreme__ court of Wisconsin was wrong with breaking the law, but they helped save a slave. We think it is necessary to break the law only when __n__ the law is wrong or it hurts people because of their race, gender, ethnicity or anything else. We think that the mob that helped saved the slave could __of__ done a better job, like sneaking him out without drawing much attention to themselves. **What about the whole Supremacy Clause??**

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">**Had the case went other way:**

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">The initial decision of the court was <span style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">a state court cannot free a prisoner from confinement by the United States government <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">. If this case had gone the other way, the state would have more power than the federal government, which would go against the Supremacy Clause. Also the Fugitive Slave Act would have been deemed unconstitutional. Sherman Booth (you mean Glover?) have been released from prison earlier, and the state Supreme Court would have to power to free a prisoner form federal custody. **Impact on American abolitionists?**


 * Bibliography:**

<span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 9pt;">Free, Setting Booth. "Ableman v. Booth - ENotes.com." //ENotes - Literature Study Guides, Lesson Plans, and More.// Web. 14 Feb. 2012. <http://www.enotes.com/ableman-v-booth-reference/ableman-v-booth>.

<span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 9pt;">Ableman v. Booth." //Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia//. Web. 14 Feb. 2012. <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ableman_v._Booth>.

<span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 9pt;">Ableman v. Booth | The Oyez Project at IIT Chicago-Kent College of Law." //The Oyez Project at IIT Chicago-Kent College of Law | A Multimedia Archive of the Supreme Court of the United States//. Web. 14 Feb. 2012. <http://www.oyez.org/cases/1851-1900/1858/1858_0>. <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif;"> <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif;"> **<span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif;"> 5.5/7 Biblio - Alphabetical, plus, only 3 sources? **  **<span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif;">24/28 Content - Good explanation in spots, tell me who the photograph is **  **<span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif;">4.5/5 Organization - watch out for errors. **  <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif;">   **<span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif;">34/40 Total **