John Marshall: Defining Federal Power

 

Marshall’s Background

·        Son of a wealthy family in Virginia

·        Successful lawyer and close friend of Washington

·        Influential speaker in favor of the Constitution at the Virginia Ratifying Convention

·        Member of House of Representatives for Virginia 1789 – 1790

·        Minister to France 1797-1798

·        Secretary of State in John Adams administration 1800

·        Fourth Supreme Court Chief Justice 1800

 

Judicial Philosophy

1.     The Constitution is a flexible document open to judicial interpretation in the light of individual cases and changing times.

2.     Federal Supremacy.

3.     Institutions of government gain respect by being effective.

 

Applying his philosophy Marshall established the prestige and independence of the Supreme Court.

 

Important Cases

Marbury v. Madison 1803 - Established power of judicial review.

Dartmouth College v. Woodward 1819 - Established sanctity of contracts clause in the Constitution.

McCulloch v. Maryland - Primacy of federal government.

Necessary and proper clause gives the federal government the right to grant corporate charters.

State of Maryland can not tax the Bank of the United States.

“The power to tax is the power to destroy.”

Gibbins v. Ogden - States cannot interfere with interstate commerce, which is solely the domain of the federal government under the commerce clause of the Constitution.

Marbury v. Madison

Case Background

1.     Origins in 1800 when Adams and Federalists in Congress were defeated in elections by Jefferson and Republicans.

2.     Lame duck Federalist president and Congress created more judgeships and appointed “midnight judges” to fill them.

3.     Adams appointed his secretary of state John Marshall to be chief justice.

4.     Marshall ran out of time and failed to deliver 17 of 42 commissions for District Columbia justices of the peace; Marshall assumed his successor would deliver the rest.

5.     Jefferson became president; ordered his secretary of state James Madison not to deliver the commissions so the Federalist judges could not take their positions.

6.     William Marbury and three other appointees petitioned the Supreme Court for a writ of mandamus.

 

Marshall’s Dilemma

Marshall realized that his two choices both would make the Court look powerless:

1.     If he issued writ Jefferson would have told Madison to disobey it. The Court would be powerless to enforce the writ.

2.     If he did not issue the writ the Court would have appeared powerless to issue it.

 

Marshall’s Decision

·        Judiciary Act of 1789 that permitted the Court to issue a writ of mandamus broadened the Court’s original jurisdiction and contradicted the Constitution.

·        The Constitution is the supreme law of the land; if other laws contradict it they are unconstitutional and must be disregarded.

·        Judges decide cases, and to decide cases they must apply the Constitution.

·        To apply the Constitution judges must say what it means or interpret it.

·        Judges take an oath to uphold the Constitution (but so do other officials) so they are the ones who must interpret the Constitution.

·        “It is emphatically the province and duty of the judicial department to say what the law is.”

The Political Shrewdness of Marshall’s Decision

·        Madison, a Republican won the case against Marbury, a Federalist. To the Republicans this looked like a Republican victory.

·        But Marshall was a sly fox. The Federalist Judge Marshall had sacrificed the Federalist commissions and judgeships (which he could not have gotten anyway) and established the power of judicial review instead.

·        Many Republicans celebrated the decision because they could not see past the denial of the Federalist commission. These Republicans did not understand the significance of the power of judicial review which Marshall had created.

·        Jefferson, leader of the Republicans did not celebrate the decision. He saw through everything and protested the decision. He said that the Constitution in the hands of Marshall was “a thing of putty.” 

·        Judicial review strengthened the federal government immensely, achieving a key Federalist objective. This was Marshall’s shrewd victory.