Question

what was the significance of Prigg v. Pennsylvania.

Answer 1

The decision affirmed the Constitution's Supremacy Clause, in which federal legislation takes precedence over state laws while governing the same conduct. The Constitution's trade provision is one of the biggest ways for the national government to assert its power over states. The federal government expanded dramatically from the New Deal period of the 1930s through the 1970s, by gradually controlling other aspects of life. By the 1980s, the rights activists of the states started reversing the trend. Debates on federal regulations tended to concentrate on potential national health care changes until the late 1990s.

Federal law shielded slave owners "from any unnecessary delay and cost," while state law authorized the accused fugitive to seek a delay while a court considered their case. The owner could face court charges. While the federal law provided the impeding owners with fines, the Pennsylvania statute only granted the plaintiff the right to claim damages.

Despite the connection of slavery with trade in the early years of the country, the Supreme Court found slavery cases to be trade concerns that concentrated on property rights rather than human rights. In the first slave case before the Court, The Antelope, Chief Justice John Marshall wrote in 1825 that in "claims in which the sacred rights of liberty and property come into conflict with each other, this Court must not yield to emotions that may seduce it from the course of justice, but must follow the mandates of the law."