Correct. The answer is b. To support his suggestion that, by the late 1850s, Republicans believed that “slave power” had corrupted every level of the American political system, the author points to the Supreme Court’s 1857 decision in the case Dred Scott v. Sanford. In this case, the Court's ruling implied that free blacks were not citizens and had no rights and that Congress did not have the power to exclude slavery from the territories, suggesting to Republicans that even the allegedly neutral judicial branch of the federal government had been co-opted by the South.
Incorrect. The answer is b. To support his suggestion that, by the late 1850s, Republicans believed that “slave power” had corrupted every level of the American political system, the author points to the Supreme Court’s 1857 decision in the case Dred Scott v. Sanford. In this case, the Court's ruling implied that free blacks were not citizens and had no rights and that Congress did not have the power to exclude slavery from the territories, suggesting to Republicans that even the allegedly neutral judicial branch of the federal government had been co-opted by the South.