Marbury Vs. Madison: The Supreme Court Case Brief

When Thomas Jefferson won the election of 1800, the federalist President Adams proceeded to quickly fill vacancies in the judiciary with members of his own party that could be judge of lifetime if they had a good behavior. In response, the Republicans of Jefferson repealed the Judiciary Act of 1800. Although the President Adams tried of cover them vacant before the end of his mandate, a series of commissions had not been expressed. Therefore, when Jefferson became president, he refused to honor the appointments of last hour of President John Adams. As a result, William Marbury, one of those named demanded James Madison, the new Secretary of State, and asked the Supreme Court to order the delivery of his Commission as a Justice of the peace.

The Marbury v Madison case took place in 1803 when the secretary of state, James Madison, refused to seat four judicial appointees despite them being confirmed by the senate. While the court had already ruled it was wrong to prevent Marbury from taking office, the Judiciary Act of 1789 gave the Supreme Court jurisdiction. The Supreme Court announced for the first time that a court may declare an act of Congress void if it is inconsistent with the Constitution. The Court also stated that Marbury was in the right but more so that the Judiciary Act of 1789 was unconstitutional deemed so because Congress could not give the Supreme Court power to issue an order granting Marbury his commission in the first place. A similar statement came from Chief Justice John Marshall when he stated that Congress could not give the Supreme Court the power to issue an order granting Marbury his commission because Congress had exceeded its authority by extending jurisdiction.

Although there was no evidence for a deal, Adams appointed Clay as his Secretary of State after his support against Jackson. This was essentially naming him as the next president which Jacksonians despised and continuously attacked Adams for during his four years in office. The cause for the Jacksonians’ anger towards President John Quincy Adams was his appointment of Clay to be his Secretary of State, generally giving him a great advantage in becoming the next president. Jackson had a greater lead in electoral votes and national popularity so being twice practically denied the Presidency was hard. The effect of the hatred of Adams for his alleged “corrupt bargain” with Clay was a blockage of his proposals in Congress.

The documents they drafted were contracts that defined the powers of government, as did the old colonial charters, but they drew their authority from the people, not from the royal seal of a distant king. As written documents the state constitutions were intended to represent a fundamental law, superior to the transient whims of ordinary legislation. Most of these documents included bills of rights, specifically guaranteeing long-prized liberties against later legislative encroachment. Most of them required the annual election of legislators, who were thus forced to stay in touch with the mood of the people. All of them deliberately created weak executive and judicial branches, at least by present-day standards.

Darby argued that it was not for Congress to ban transportation in interstate commerce as well as violate the 5th Amendment protecting citizens from self-implication by recording of the times and ages of their laborers. The Supreme Court unanimously agreed to reverse the previous court’s decision of not guilty citing that it is within the constitutional authority of Congress to standardize interstate commerce. The Court believed that the goal of the Act was to prohibit states from using substandard labor systems to their own monetary benefit by interstate commerce. The Court also established that the clause for keeping records of labor was fitting to allow for the enforcement of the Act. It was also decided that an employer could be held accountable to the law if they failed to follow it.

Marshall’s ruling extended the power of Congress through the necessary and proper clause. The clause allowed Congress to approve laws that were necessary and proper to carry out the government’s duties under the Constitution. Subsequently, Marshall decided that Maryland had no mandate to tax the government and that it was constitutional to open the bank. His ruling declared, “the Government of the

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.

After being defeated by Thomas Jefferson in the 1800 Presidential Election, President Adams appointed many Federalist judges to fill government posts created by Congress. These commissions were not met by James Madison, the Secretary of State for Jefferson. As a result, one of the appointees, William Marbury, filed a writ of mandamus demanding that Madison deliver the commissions. The Supreme Court denied the request, stating that part of the Judiciary Act of 1789 was unconstitutional. This landmark court case established the concept of Judicial Review, the power to determine if a law or act is unconstitutional.

Checks and Balances Secondly, the separation of power provides a system of shared powers or checks and balances. By that I mean, that each branch has the power to limit or check the other two. The Constitution gave the most checks to Congress or the legislature. They did this because the framers did not want the president to gain enough power to become a tyrant. A few legislative checks include; the ability to impeach the president or judges, override a presidential veto, pass laws to overthrow supreme court decisions, and propose amendments to the Constitution.

The Supreme Court ruled that Congress had implied powers under the Necessary and Proper Clause which made it constitutional to create the Second Bank of the United States. Furthermore, it ruled that the state of Maryland could not implement a tax on the bank. In addition, the Supreme Court brought up an amazing point stating that “if [the Supreme