TANEY, era, ROGER BROOKE (1777-1864). An eminent American jurist, Chief Justice of the United States Supreme Court. He was born in Cal vert County, Md.; graduated at Dickinson Col lege, Pa.; studied law at Annapolis; and in 1799 was admitted to the bar. In 1S23 he removed to Baltimore, where he succeeded William Pinkney and Luther Martin as head of the Naryland bar. In 1S27 he was elected Attorney-General of the State, and, having become a Democrat :uid 11 sup porter of Andrew Jackson, was appointed At torney-General of the United States in 1831. In this capacity he became one of Jackson's most trusted counselors, encouraged him to remove the United States Bank deposits, and upon the refusal of William J. Duane, then Secretary of the Treasury, to obey Jackson's orders to this effect, was appointed in Duane's stead, though his appointment was never confirmed by the Sen ate. Taney promptly removed the deposits and thus further won the confidence of his chief. In 1836 be succeeded John Marshall as Chief Justice of the United States Supreme Court. In this
capacity be sustained in the main the high repu tation of his distinguished predecessor for legal learning and acumen, though as a result of the passions engendered by file approaching civil strife some of his opinions were severely criti cised. He wrote the opinion of the court in many important eases, the most notable being that of Dred Scott. (See DnEn Scorr CASE.) During the Civil War Chief Justice Taney gave opinion in the noted case of Ex-partc Merryman in an swer to an application for a writ of habeas corpus in behalf of a citizen of Baltimore who had been arrested by a United States officer on a charge of treason, denying in strong and vigor ous language the right of the President to sus pend the writ of habeas corpus and affirming that that power was vested in Congress alone. A memoir of Taney's life, in part an autobiog raphy, was published in 1872 by Samuel Tyler.