 Scott based his legal argument on precedents such as "Somersett v. Stewart", "Winny v. Whitesides", and "Rachel v. Walker", claiming his presence and residence in free territories required his emancipation.Scott's lawyers argued the same for Scott's wife and claimed that Eliza Scott's birth on a steamboat between a free state and a free territory had made her free upon birth.It was expected that the Scotts would win their freedom with relative ease since Missouri courts had heard more than ten other cases in which they had freed slaves who had been taken into free territory.