DRED SCOTT: TIERED CITIZENSHIP AND TIERED PERSONHOOD.

The article focuses on the case "Dred Scott v. Sandford." The court accepted and perpetuated the notion that the Constitution afforded multiple tiers of citizenship and multiple tiers of personhood through which different groups of citizens and different groups of persons would receive varying sets of rights. The Reconstruction Amendments largely resolved this issue by providing a formal equality that created a single tier of citizenship and a single tier of personhood.