Marbury V. Madison: The Supreme Court Case

The event that took place over two hundred years ago, but still has an effect in our government today is the Marbury v. Madison court case. This supreme court case is considered to be one of the most important milestones in history because of how it played out. Now, all three branches of the United States government have an equal role to each other. Although Chief Justice John Marshall did not want to rule against William Marbury receiving his commission for his position as a justice of the peace, he did so to establish judicial review, the element that was missing in the system of checks and balances. It all began when Thomas Jefferson of the Democratic-Republican party defeated John Adams of the Federalists in the election of 1800. Adams

“Thomas Jefferson refused to honor the commissions, claiming that they were invalid because they had not been delivered by the end of Adams’s term” (“Marbury v. Madison – Case Brief Summary”). James Madison, not surprisingly enough, was of the Democratic-Republican party like Jefferson, therefore he also believed that Marbury did not deserve the employment. This political party was also known as the Jeffersonian- Republicans since Thomas Jefferson and others, including Madison, had founded the first opposing party of the United States. Seeing that Jefferson would not accept any members of the Federalist party as justices, tension rose between petitioner, William Marbury, and Secretary of State James Madison, which later caused the event that is viewed as momentous in our history

Madison case, the outcome could and would have been completely different. The decision he made of ruling in favor of James Madison, rather than William Marbury, was absolute brilliance. Even though he disagreed with Madison and believed Marbury deserved the appointment of a justice, he still had to rule against Marbury because this was the only way to establish the principle of judicial review, one of the most important parts of the system of checks and balances. The three branches of our government would not be equal without the court having such a power. Today, it is accepted that the supreme court will evaluate the federal laws and the acts of the executive and legislative branches. “It is emphatically the province and duty of the judicial department to say what the law is. Those who apply the rule to particular cases, must of necessity expound and interpret that rule. If two laws conflict with each other, the courts must decide on the operation of each” (“Marbury v. Madison,” PBS). In Marshall’s majority opinion, he states the role of the judicial branch, which is like ours now. Thanks to such an intelligent man, the United States government has three branches in which the power of each cannot overthrow