The Taney Court unanimously ruled in Jones v. Van Zandt (1847) that the Fugitive Slave Act of 1793 was constitutional. John Van Zandt, an operator of the so-called Underground Railroad, was sued by Kentucky slaveowner Wharton Jones for harboring a male slave named Andrew. The Taney Court, in an opinion written by Justice Levi Woodbury, upheld the constitutionality of the law. The Court determined that slavery was a “political question settled by each State for itself.”