Marbury v Madison and Judicial Review

[J.R. Brown]

The Players:

Federalists:
John Adams-President
John Marshall-Secretary of State/Had just been appointed and confirmed Chief Justice of the Supreme Court

Democrats:
Thomas Jefferson-President-elect
James Madison-Secretary of State under Jefferson

The Election of 1800
Okay, after the election of 1800 the Democrats took control of the House, Senate, and White House away from the Federalists. Now this scared the crap out of the Federalists who were a bunch of aristocrats who wanted to control the country, and those crazy Democrats wanted to give power to the people.

The Federalists couldn't have that, so they decided before the new Congress and the new President were sworn in they pack all of the lower federal courts with federalists. So, Adams spent all of his time writing these letters of appointment and stuffing them into envelopes to be sent to Congress.

He became tired of this, so he asked his Sec. of State, already confirmed Chief Justice, John Marshall to take over for him. Marshall forgot to send the letters out and left them in his desk.

The New Jefferson Administration
When the new Secretary of State under Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, opened his desk drawer, to his supprise he found a stack of letters of judicial appointments all of which were federalists.

Now Madison decided, instead of sending those letters out, he would just ignore them and go about his business. Now a man named Marbury, who knew that he was one of the appointees Adams wanted in the courts, decided he would ask the Supreme Court to order a writ of mandamus, which simply means "do your job" in other words send the appointments out, to James Madison and the executive branch. Now at the time all of this was legal under the Judiciary Act of 1789.

Marbury v Madison
The Supreme Court had three options, they could:
1) Rule for Marbury and risk being ignored by the executive.
2) Rule for Madison and make the Courts look like they are submitting to the Executive branch, in both 1 and 2 they will be perceived weak.
3) Declare the Judiciary Act of 1789 unconstitutional

So, in fear of being perceived as weak, the Supreme Court threw out the case, declaring that they had no right, under the Constitution and separation of powers to order the Executive branch to do anything, thus declaring the Judiciary Act of 1789 unconstitutional, and the power of judicial review was born.

I just thought this story was interesting and worth sharing.

[dazzleman]

I learned about that case in American history class in 11th grade.  That case set the precedent for judicial review of laws, and is a very interesting and important one.

The constitution really is a living document, and power seesaws back and forth between the branches of government, depending on circumstances and historical trends.

I have stated pretty forcefully in other threads that I think the judicial branch has become too powerful, and is a threat to our self-government.  Because judges don't have to face the voters, their power is supposed to contained to a very limited realm, and I believe that the courts today have far exceeded that realm, and many people seem to believe that they should have almost dictatorial powers.

[J. J.]

But in return, the power of the courts to rule acts taken by the other two branches was established.

[A18]

I learned about this a long, long time ago, though I don't remember when anymore.