PROGRESS

Congress Votes to Replace Bust of Supreme Court Justice Roger Taney

Supreme Court Chief Justice Roger Taney’s bust, which is parked at the Old Supreme Court Chamber in the Capitol, will be replaced with the bust of Justice Thurgood Marshall.

Congress voted to remove the bust of the Supreme Court Chief Justice Roger Taney, who penned the infamous 1857 Dred Scott decision that preserved slavey. With the House’s approval of the law that passed Wednesday, Taney’s bust, which is parked at the Old Supreme Court Chamber in the Capitol, will be replaced with the bust of Justice Thurgood Marshall – the first Black person to serve as a Supreme Court Justice. The bust is “unsuitable for the honor of display to the many visitors to the Capitol,” the legislation says. “Taney’s ruling denied Black Americans citizenship, upheld slavery, and contributed, frankly, to the outbreak of the Civil War,” said Democratic Maryland Rep. Steny Hoyer (D-MD), on the U.S. House floor on Wednesday. “That’s why I and so many others advocated for his statue’s removal from the Maryland State House.”