US House votes to remove bust of judge who wrote Dred Scott decision defending slavery

A marble bust of Chief Justice Roger Taney is displayed at the old supreme court chamber in the US Capitol. Photograph: J Scott Applewhite/AP

The US House of Representatives voted on Wednesday to remove from the Capitol a bust of Roger Taney, the supreme court justice who in 1857 wrote the Dred Scott decision, justifying slavery and denying that Black people had rights any “white man was bound to respect”.

If the new measure is signed into law by Joe Biden, the bust will be removed from outside the old supreme court chamber and replaced by a bust of Thurgood Marshall, the first Black justice.