What ruling indicated that slavery could exist anywhere in the United States?

The Dred Scott Decision is the ruling that indicated slavery could exist anywhere in the United States. This landmark Supreme Court case in 1857 involved an enslaved man named Dred Scott, who sued for his freedom after being taken into free territories. The Court ruled that African Americans were not citizens and therefore had no right to sue in federal court. Furthermore, it declared that the federal government had no authority to regulate slavery in the territories, effectively allowing slavery to expand into all U.S. territories. This decision was pivotal in intensifying the national debate over slavery and contributed to the tensions leading up to the Civil War.

In contrast, the Emancipation Proclamation was a presidential executive order that declared the freedom of all enslaved people in Confederate states, but it did not establish the legality of slavery elsewhere. The Missouri Compromise aimed to maintain a balance between slave and free states, restricting the spread of slavery into certain territories, while the Kansas-Nebraska Act introduced the idea of popular sovereignty, allowing settlers in those territories to decide on the legality of slavery. These events contributed to the complicated legal and social landscape surrounding slavery, but it was the Dred Scott Decision that unequivocally stated that slavery could not be prohibited by Congress in any territory