Marbury v. Madison
Marbury v. Madison (1803) was a landmark decision of the United States Supreme Court that established the principle of judicial review. In the decision, written by Chief Justice John Marshall, the court struck down a congressional statute as unconstitutional for the first time in US history, thereby establishing the United States Constitution as a legal – not just a political – document.
Prior to the Marbury case, the Supreme Court was the weakest branch of the federal government. It had reviewed only 63 cases in the twelve years before 1801 and was viewed as a useless, aristocratic institution by many ardent Republicans, some of whom sought to do away with the federal judiciary entirely. In February 1803, the Court heard Marbury v. Madison, a case in which Secretary of State James Madison had withheld a commission for a federal office from a political opponent, William Marbury; Marbury had petitioned the Supreme Court to issue a writ of mandamus, which would force Madison to deliver the commission. Chief Justice Marshall, writing for a unanimous court, ruled that while Marbury was legally entitled to the commission, the Supreme Court could not help him by issuing a writ of mandamus. The statute that empowered it to do so – Section 13 of the Judiciary Act of 1789 – was, in fact, in conflict with Article III of the Constitution. For this reason, the Marshall Court took the unprecedented step of striking down Section 13.
By striking down a congressional statute, Marshall had established the principle of judicial review – that is, a court's ability to uphold or strike down a law based on its constitutionality. Another major consequence was that the US Constitution was now no longer just a political document – a statement of the political ideals of the United States – but was a legal document as well, one which all federal and state courts and legislatures must adhere to. The case is therefore considered the single most important decision in US constitutional law and remains one of the most significant cases in the history of the US Supreme Court.
Background: Creating a Federal Judiciary
The federal judiciary – conceived at the Constitutional Convention of 1787 and enshrined in Article III of the resultant United States Constitution – proved to be a controversial institution in the first decade of its existence. Americans were generally predisposed to distrust judges, whose flowing robes, rigid court protocols, and high benches smacked of the monarchism all too recently cast aside. It was not lost on the people that the federal judges were modeled closely off the colonial magistrates they had replaced, who themselves had been selected by the king and had – in the patriotic memories of the Americans, at least – arbitrarily wielded their authority. Thomas Jefferson, in 1776, referred to judicial decisions as "the eccentric impulses of whimsical, capricious, designing men" who were looking after political interests rather than enforcing the law (Wood, 402). This suspicion was carried over to the new American courts, whose judges were, in many instances, appointed rather than elected and served life tenures rather than limited terms of office, neither aspect seeming to hint at an enlightened government institution.
The makeup of this controversial body was roughly outlined in Article III of the Constitution, which vested judicial power in "one supreme court" of the United States as well as "such inferior courts as the Congress may from time to time ordain and establish". The Supreme Court was granted original jurisdiction – or the power to hear a case for the first time – over cases that involved ambassadors, public officials, or individual states as parties in the suit. It was also given appellate jurisdiction – or the power to hear cases on appeal – over a broader range of suits involving constitutional or federal law. Although Article III left things rather vague, the courts were fleshed out by the First Congress in the Judiciary Act of 1789. This act created a system of federal circuit courts and district courts under the Supreme Court and expounded on the powers of the judiciary. Section 25, for instance, allowed federal courts to overturn any state law or state court ruling that violated a federal treaty. Additionally, Section 13 of the Judiciary Act – which will become important later – allowed the judiciary to issue legal orders called writs of mandamus to government officials, which would force them to adhere to federal law.
While this expansion of judicial authority certainly ruffled a few feathers, the judiciary was still by far the weakest branch of the federal government. Neither Article III of the Constitution nor the Judiciary Act of 1789 had given the Supreme Court the power of judicial review. This refers to a court's ability to declare an act of the executive or legislative branch to be unconstitutional and therefore invalid, a function that the Supreme Court is best known for today and considered a vital part of the checks and balances of federal power. Without this authority, the Supreme Court wielded minimal influence in the first decade of its existence and was widely disregarded by the other two branches. In fact, between 1789 and 1801, it heard only 63 cases, none of which had any long-lasting importance. Since the federal courts were still seen as aristocratic bodies that hindered the rights of the states, some hardcore Republicans wanted to do away with the federal judiciary altogether. This was how matters stood when the US presidential election of 1800 swept such Republicans into power, placing the judiciary in jeopardy.
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