till a slave; and whatever
opinions may be entertained in favor of the citizenship of a free
person of the African race, no one supposes that a slave is a citizen
of the State or of the United States. If, therefore, the acts done by
his owner did not make them free persons, he is still a slave, and
certainly incapable of suing in the character of a citizen.

The principle of law is too well settled to be disputed, that a court
can give no judgment for either party, where it has no jurisdiction;
and if, upon the showing of Scott himself, it appeared that he was
still a slave, the case ought to have been dismissed, and the judgment
against him and in favor of the defendant for costs, is, like that on
the plea in abatement, erroneous, and the suit ought to have been
dismissed by the Circuit Court for want of jurisdiction in that court.

But, before we proceed to examine this part of the case, it may be
proper to notice an objection taken to the judicial authority of this
court to decide it; and it has been said, that as this court has
decided against the jurisdiction of the Circuit Court on the plea in
abatement, it has no right to examine any question presented by the
exception; and that anything it may say upon that part of the case
will be extra-judicial, and mere obiter dicta.

This is a manifest mistake; there can be no doubt as to the
jurisdiction of this court to revise the judgment of a Circuit Court,
and to reverse it for any error apparent on the record, whether it be
the error of giving judgment in a case over which it had no
jurisdiction, or any other material error; and this, too, whether
there is a plea in abatement or not.

The objection appears to have arisen from confounding writs of error
to a State court, with writs of error to a Circuit Court of the United
States. Undoubtedly, upon a writ of error to a State court, unless the
record shows a case that gives jurisdiction, the case must be
dismissed for want of jurisdiction in _this court_. And if it is
dismissed on that ground, we have no right to examine and decide upon
any question presented by the bill of exceptions, or any other part of
the record. But writs of error to a State court, and to a Circuit
Court of the United States, are regulated by different laws, and stand
upon entirely different principles. And in a writ of error to a
Circuit Court of the United States, the whole record is before this
court for examination and decision; and if the