Curtis's 67-page dissent described the historical and legal baselessness of Taney's arguments that black people could not possess federal U.S. citizenship. Curtis pointed out that at the Constitution's ratification in 1789, black men could vote in five of the 13 U.S. states. That made them citizens of their states and also of the United States. He cited many state statutes and state court decisions supporting his position, such as "Marie Louise v. Marot", an 1835 case in which the Louisiana Supreme Court ruled that for an enslaved Louisianan woman, "being free for one moment in France, it was not in the power of her former owner to reduce her again to slavery." Curtis's dissent was extremely persuasive, and prompted Taney to add 18 additional pages to his majority opinion in an attempt to rebut some of Curtis's arguments.