TANEY, ROGER BROOKE

born March 17, 1777, Calvert County, Md., U.S. died Oct. 12, 1864, Washington, D.C. fifth chief justice of the Supreme Court of the United States, remembered principally for the Dred Scott decision (q.v.; 1857). Additional reading C.B. Swisher, Roger B. Taney (1935, reprinted 1961), a definitive biography; Felix Frankfurter, The Commerce Clause Under Marshall, Taney and Waite (1937); A.J. Schumacher, Thunder on Capitol Hill: The Life of Chief Justice Roger B. Taney (1964), a juvenile biography with emphasis on Taney as a political figure; Samuel Tyler, Memoir of Roger Brooke Taney, LL.D., 2nd rev. ed. (1876; first ed. reprinted 1970), contains Taney's autobiography and an appendix of legal opinions, including that of the Dred Scott case; A. Dunham and P.B. Kurland (eds.), Mr. Justice, rev. ed. (1964), and K.B. Umbreit, Our Eleven Chief Justices: A History of the Supreme Court in Terms of Their Personalities, vol. 1 (1938, reprinted 1969), collections of biographical essays with analyses of the contributions of chief justices to the development of the Supreme Court.