Following Marshall’s death in 1835, President Jackson appointed Roger B. Taney (confirmed by the Senate in March of 1936) to succeed him as Chief Justice of the United States. With this appointment came great speculation by the Marshall supporters of the Court’s power becoming deteriorated. This assumption, however, would prove to be false in many respects. The classic jurisprudence of Marshall’s time had truly not been altered, and the relationship between the nation and the state was still a primary concern to Taney. His presence allowed the Court to be accepted as the final arbiter in constitutional interpretation. Maintenance of a strong union for Taney would come with compromise, and from his inauguration in 1836 until 1857, the Court had to use this compromise as a tool to keep the Union secure and to overcome the bitter conflicts that were present in the American society. In 1856, however, Taney would make a decision that would put the Union’s strength up for question in the Dred Scott v. Sandford case. Scott had been taken into Illinois and the northern part of the Louisiana Purchase as a slave even though these areas had been declared free of slavery by the laws of Illinois and the Missouri Compromise, respectively. Taney ruled that Scott could not issue suit in this matter because he was a Negro, and Negroes were not citizens according to the Constitution. He then stated that because the Missouri Compromise went beyond the powers of Congress, he was still a slave. And finally, because of the fact that Missouri law must have therefore regarded him as a slave, the Supreme Court itself must uphold Missouri law. This decision did endanger the achievement of the Court in the 1850’s; however, the public did still hold a level of respect for the members of the Court that would assist with overcoming such a verdict. Overall, the Taney court did assist in strengthening the nation-state relationship, and similar to the Marshallian era, a more solid system of jurisprudence and judicial image did develop that became essential to the future periods in Supreme Court history, including the next era from 1867 to 1937 when that particular relationship, once prominent, would become subsidiary.

Assisting to ensure that future civil cases outside of wartime would generate justice, the Court of the 1940’s developed the “fair trial rule.” This made certain that should due process be denied, all of the facts of the case would be considered to see in detail what would constitute the refutation of fundamental fairness. In 1947, however, Justice Black would argue against this concept in Adamson v. California. It was here that he maintained the Court would “extend to all people of the nation the complete protection of the Bill of Rights,” however his desire failed to succeed.

The 1905 Lochner v. New York case was a prime example of due process in action for the Court. New York had created a law that restricted the hours of bakers in the state to ten per day or sixty per week. The problem with this regulation was the fact that if bakers’ hours were subject to regulation, then so too were the hours of all other workers within the state, and the Court overruled this regulation on those grounds. In the words of Chief Justice Taft, the police power of the states could not impose a regulation as such for it was indeed a direct violation of due process. The concept of a “business affected with a public interest” brought about the topic of due process once again in the case of Munn v. Illinois. It was here the Court determined that a business affected with a public interest or “devoted to a public use” was subject to rate regulation, and allowing this regulation under the public interest principle amidst a variety of businesses was a solution.

The prevention of states from “flying off” and establishing a Union of their own was the most important goal of the Court after the initiatio

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