Image from Wikimedia Commons.

We’ve saved the most legally prestigious ghost for last! Supreme Court Justice Roger B. Taney, author of the infamous Dred Scott decision, is said to be haunting the Clarence M. Mitchell Jr. Courthouse, according to the Baltimore Sun.

Lawyer Adam Sean Cohen says that he had an experience so unnerving he walked out of the courtroom in the middle of a proceeding. “My entire body felt like I was in a grocery store in the frozen foods section, when you open the door–you’re warm, in a warm area, but there’s this coldness around you,” he told the Sun. “I stopped talking and said I had to leave. ‘I gotta leave.’ I literally turned my back to her and walked out. … It was the most unnerving thing ever. Never in a million years would I turn my back on a judge and just walk out. You want to give them the most deference possible.”

Fortunately, Circuit Judge Wanda Keyes Heard was understanding about Cohen’s sudden departure. She said that she believed it was Justice Taney haunting the courthouse, which bears an inscription of his name on its dome. Heard, a descendent of slaves, says she was pointing out the inscription to a visitor when a piece of glass suddenly shattered on her secretary’s desk. “He might have a little bit of a problem with me presiding,” she quipped.

The Mitchell Courthouse historian pointed out to the Sun that Taney, who died in 1864, was never actually inside the courthouse, which was constructed in 1900. But he did live across the street in a building which has now been demolished.