By Steve Klepper (Twitter: @MDAppeal)

As Josh Blackman has covered at his blog, a Baltimore City commission has recommended removing the statue of Chief Justice Roger Taney from the city’s Mount Vernon neighborhood.

This event calls to mind an exchange I had with a then-professor at Goucher College in 1994. When he expressed sarcastic pride that a Marylander, Taney, wrote the Dred Scott decision,[1] I asked, “Wasn’t Taney otherwise considered a great justice?” He shot back: “How was the play, Mrs. Lincoln?” Point taken.

I favor removing the statue, but we should ask serious questions before cutting symbolic ties with Taney. Read More…