One of the first duties of government is to afford that protection. The very essence of civil liberty certainly consists in the right of every individual to claim the protection of the laws, whenever he receives an injury. If he has a right, and that right has been violated, do the laws of his country afford him a remedy? This brings us to the second inquiry which is 2dly. To withhold his commission, therefore, is an act deemed by the court not warranted by law, but violative of a vested legal right. It decidedly the opinion of the court, that when a commission has been signed by the president, the appointment is made and that the commission is complete, when the seal of the United States has been affixed to it by the secretary of state. Has the applicant a right to the commission he demands?. If they do afford him a remedy, is it a mandamus issuing from this court? If he has a right, and that right has been violated, do the laws of his country afford him a remedy?ģd.
Has the applicant a right to the commission he demands?Ģd. In the order in which the court has viewed this subject, the following questions have been considered and decided:ġst. The peculiar delicacy of this case, the novelty of some of its circumstances, and the real difficulty attending the points which occur in it, require a complete exposition of the principles on which the opinion to be given by the court is founded. No cause has been shown, and the present motion is for a mandamus. Madison completed the system of checks and balances, the United States had a government in which laws could be enacted, interpreted and executed to meet challenging circumstances.Ĭhief Justice Marshall delivered the opinion of the Court.Īt the last term on the affidavits then read and filed with the clerk, a rule was granted in this case, requiring the Secretary of State to show cause why a mandamus should not issue, directing him to deliver to William Marbury his commission as a justice of the peace for the county of Washington, in the district of Columbia. They contented themselves with establishing a framework of government that included safeguards against the abuse of power. They resisted the temptation to write too many specifics into the basic document. In its elasticity lies its chief greatness.” The often-praised wisdom of the authors of the Constitution consisted largely of their restraint. “The Constitution of the United States,” said Woodrow Wilson, “was not made to fit us like a strait jacket. Although no other law was declared unconstitutional until the Dred Scott decision of 1857, the role of the Supreme Court to invalidate federal and state laws that are contrary to the Constitution has never been seriously challenged. It therefore fell to a strong Chief Justice like Marshall to complete the triangular structure of checks and balances by establishing the principle of judicial review. In this intricate system, the role of the Supreme Court had not been defined. The President was given the veto power to restrain Congress and the authority to appoint members of the Supreme Court with the advice and consent of the Senate. The Constitution gave Congress the power to impeach and remove officials, including judges or the President himself. When James Madison, Alexander Hamilton, and John Jay wrote a defense of the Constitution in The Federalist, they explained their judgment that a strong national government must have built-in restraints: “You must first enable government to control the governed and in the next place oblige it to control itself.” The writers of the Constitution had given the executive and legislative branches powers that would limit each other as well as the judiciary branch. Marshall, however, believed that the Supreme Court should have a role equal to those of the other two branches of government. Nothing stated in the Constitution gave the Court this specific power. “A Law repugnant to the Constitution is void.” With these words written by Chief Justice Marshall, the Supreme Court for the first time declared unconstitutional a law passed by Congress and signed by the President. Madison, Chief Justice John Marshall established the principle of judicial review, an important addition to the system of “checks and balances” created to prevent any one branch of the Federal Government from becoming too powerful. In 1801, outgoing President John Adams had issued William Marbury a commission as justice of the peace - but the new Secretary of State, James Madison, refused to deliver it.
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