The Everything U.S. Constitution Book by Ellen M. Kozak

Author:Ellen M. Kozak
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: ebook, book
Publisher: F+W Media
Published: 2011-05-02T04:00:00+00:00

In 1776, John Marshall joined the Continental Army where he served under his father’s old classmate, George Washington. Marshall was involved in fighting in New Jersey, New York, and Pennsylvania and was also present during the brutal winter of 1777–1778 that the army spent at Valley Forge.

Marbury v. Madison (1803)

In 1801, just as President John Adams was about to leave office, he appointed forty-two justices of the peace who were confirmed by a lame duck Senate. Although their commissions were signed, some were not delivered before the new president, James Madison, was sworn in. He refused to have them delivered.

William Marbury was one of the men who did not receive his commission. He sued in the Supreme Court, under original jurisdiction granted to it by the Judiciary Act of 1789. Justice Marshall wrote the opinion for the Court, saying that Marbury did have a right to his commission, but that the case could not be brought directly to the Supreme Court, because the Constitution established when the Supreme Court should have original jurisdiction, and the Congress could not change that.

Marshall reasoned that because the Constitution was the “supreme law of the land,” what it said could overrule any law Congress made that did not conform to the Constitution—and the original jurisdiction of the Court was limited by the Constitution, although Congress had the right to expand the Court’s appellate jurisdiction.

But most important, he ruled that when the Constitution says, “The judicial Power shall extend to all Cases, in Law and Equity, arising under this Constitution, the Laws of the United States, and Treaties made,” it meant that “it is emphatically the province and duty of the judicial department to say what the law is.” This established the precedent of judicial review of laws passed by the Congress.

Martin v. Hunter’s Lessee (1816)

This case, involving the inheritance of some land in Virginia, and its subsequent sale and lease, dragged on for decades, complicated by the fact that the land had been left to a British citizen (Martin). Since Justice Marshall had purchased part of the vast tract of land in question, he recused himself, declining to participate because of his conflict of interest. Associate Justice Joseph Story, therefore, wrote the opinion.

The Court had sent the case back to a Virginia court to decide, directing them to act in compliance with a 1796 treaty. When the Virginia court refused, Justice Story wrote, for the court, that according to the Constitution, the ratified treaty was a part of the “supreme law of the land.” The ultimate conclusion of this complex case was that where state and federal laws were in conflict, the states were subservient to the federal law and decisions, because of the Constitution’s supremacy. And the Supreme Court had the authority to overrule state courts because there had to be a national authority to determine what the federal law was for the whole country.

McCulloch v. Maryland (1819)

This case involved the second Bank of the United States’ refusal to pay a tax that was enacted on its banknotes by the state of Maryland.

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