Congress acts to remove bust of Dred Scott decision author

By KEVIN FREKING
Associated Press

WASHINGTON (AP) — The bust of a U.S. Supreme Court justice who wrote an infamous decision on slavery could soon be leaving the Capitol. The House approved a bill Wednesday that calls for removing the bust of Roger Taney, the nation’s fifth chief justice. Taney wrote the infamous 1857 Dred Scott decision that held African-Americans were not citizens. The bust of Taney now sits inside the entrance to the Old Supreme Court Chamber. The legislation also commissions a bust of Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall to be placed somewhere in the Capitol. Marshall became the court’s first Black justice in 1967.