What did the Dred Scott v. Sandford case determine?

The Dred Scott v. Sandford case, decided by the U.S. Supreme Court in 1857, had a profound impact on the legal status of African Americans in the United States. The Court ruled that African Americans, whether enslaved or free, could not be considered American citizens and therefore had no standing to sue in federal court. This decision effectively denied citizenship rights to nearly all African Americans at the time and reinforced the racial hierarchy that undergirded slavery and discrimination in the United States.

Furthermore, the ruling states that the federal government had no authority to regulate slavery in the territories, which intensified the sectional conflict leading up to the Civil War. The Court's conclusion that African Americans were not entitled to the rights and privileges of citizens highlighted the deeply entrenched racism of that era and had lasting implications for civil rights movements that followed.

The other choices reflect concepts related to citizenship and governmental authority regarding slavery, but they do not encompass the core finding of the Dred Scott case, which fundamentally centered around the status of African Americans as citizens. Thus, the determination that African Americans could not be citizens is central to understanding the case's significance in American history.