In 1857, the United States Supreme Court decision in "Dred Scott v. Sandford" appalled Lincoln. Supreme Court Chief Justice Roger B. Taney in the decision wrote that blacks were not citizens and derived no rights from the Constitution. While its author hoped that "Dred Scott" would end all disputes over slavery in the favour of southern slave-holders, the decision sparked further outrage in the North. Lincoln denounced it as the product of a conspiracy to support the Slave Power and believed that the Dred Scott decision, in combination with the Kansas–Nebraska Act, would enable slavery to potentially spread into the free states. He argued the decision was at variance with the Declaration of Independence; he said that while the founding fathers did not believe all men equal in every respect, they believed all men were equal "in certain inalienable rights, among which are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness."