John Adams named John Marshall Chief Justice in his last weeks in office, and Marshall served from 1801 to 1835, longer than any other Chief Justice. When he arrived, the Supreme Court was the weakest branch. When he died, its rulings shaped the whole government. Three cases from his Court are still taught in every course on the Constitution.
Key idea
Marbury v. Madison (1803): the Court may refuse to enforce a law that conflicts with the Constitution (judicial review). McCulloch v. Maryland (1819): Congress could charter a national bank under the Necessary and Proper Clause, and a state could not tax it. Gibbons v. Ogden (1824): the commerce power covers navigation between states, and federal law beats a conflicting state monopoly.
Why it works
Marshall's reasoning in Marbury runs in three steps. The Constitution is the supreme law. A law that conflicts with it is therefore not valid law. And judges, who must decide cases, have to say which law governs: in his words, "It is emphatically the province and duty of the Judicial Department to say what the law is." In McCulloch he read federal power broadly for the same reason: it is "a constitution we are expounding," meant to last for ages.
Worked example: The clever part of Marbury
Marshall said Marbury had a right to his job, yet ruled that the Court could not order Madison to deliver it. Why was that a shrewd move?
- If he had ordered Madison to deliver the commission, Jefferson's government might have refused, and the Court would have looked powerless.
- Instead he struck down the part of the 1789 law that gave the Court that power.
- So the Court gave nothing for Jefferson to defy, while claiming a larger power: to judge laws against the Constitution.
- Jefferson disliked the reasoning but had no order to resist.
Answer: He avoided a fight he would lose and established judicial review at the same time.
Common mistake
The Constitution does not say in so many words that courts may strike down laws. Judicial review is not spelled out; Marshall reasoned it from the Constitution being supreme law (Article VI) and from the judges' duty to decide cases under it (Article III). Some founders, such as Hamilton in Federalist No. 78, had argued for it; critics such as Brutus feared it. Check: if someone quotes "the judicial review clause," there is no such clause.
You will meet these cases again, as law, in Civics and Government and in Constitutional Law I.