What is Marbury v. Madison and why is it a landmark case in the history of the US Supreme Court?

In Marbury v. Madison (1803) the Supreme Court reaffirmed that the Constitution gave the Court the authority of judicial review that is, it empowered the Court to review acts of the Legislative, and, by extension, Executive, branches to evaluate whether legislation was constitutional. If found unconstitutional, the Court could overrule the law storical Context The Marbury case occurred during an era when the United States was still refining the balance of power between the three branches of government, and trying to adjust to differences between English laws and traditions followed in Colonial America and the new mandates established by the Constitution of the United States.

There was considerable political tension and disagreement (as there is in the U.S. Today) between parties that had different visions and strategies for how the government should be run Prior to 1800, Federalist ideologies dominated government. Federalists, like the first two Presidents, George Washington and John Adams, favored a stronger central government and rule by the elite. The anti-Federalists, which morphed into the Democratic-Republican party, had an opposite intent, favoring a less patriarchal government and placing more emphasis on the Bill of Rights and state sovereignty.

Thomas Jefferson and James Madison were early leaders of the anti-Federalist, Democratic-Republican party Presidential elections were somewhat different in the 18th century than they are today. At that time, the President and Vice-President were separately elected offices, both filled by men who had contended for the Presidency. The candidate who received the greatest number of votes became President, while the candidate with the second greatest number of votes became Vice-President.

This lead to situations where the President and Vice-President represented separate parties that were politically hostile to each other John Adams, a Federalist, won the Presidential election in 1796. Thomas Jefferson, a Democratic-Republic, won the Vice-Presidency. The Federalists controlled both the executive and legislative branches at that time.By the next election, in 1800, Federalist policies had angered enough people that Adams lost the election badly Thomas Jefferson and Aaron Burr, both Democratic-Republicans, received an equal number of electoral votes, so the final decision as to who would assume which role fell to the House of Representatives.

Jefferson, championed by a popular Alexander Hamilton, won the Presidency. With both Presidential and Vice-Presidential offices filled by Democratic-Republicans, as well as the majority of seats in both the House and Senate, the new administration portended a radical shift in the government's ideology Before the new administration could take office, however, the Sixth Congress passed two pieces of legislation in early 1801 that expanded the federal court system. The first, The Judiciary Act of 1801, which passed February 13, 1801, reduced the size of the Supreme Court from 6 members to 5, by attrition, to impede Jefferson's ability to change the composition of the Court (which was entirely Federalist at that time).

It also relieved the Justices of their "circuit riding" responsibilities, reorganizing the lower courts into six circuits, and creating positions for 16 new judges The second piece of legislation, the Organic Act of 1801 (aka "An Act Concerning the District of Columbia"), which passed on February 27, 1801, is more directly relevant to the Marbury v. Madison case. The dispute revolved around justice of the peace appointments awarded under the District of Columbia Organic Act of 1801, in which Congress formally incorporated landed ceded to the federal government by Virginia and Maryland into the District of Columbia, dividing the territory into two "cities": Alexandria, which operated under Virginia law; and Georgetown, which operated under Maryland law This created a number of lower-level judicial positions (the most commonly referenced number is 42), including "...such number of discreet persons to be justices of the peace, as the President of the United States shall from time to time think expedient The out-going President, John Adams, in a desperate attempt to bolster Federalist influence, quickly appointed 42 members of his own party to the justice of the peace positions, and 16 Federalist judges to head the Circuit courts created by the new Judiciary Act of 1801 (passed on February 13, 1801).

These later became known as the "Midnight Judges," after the fact that they were nominated February 13, 18013, and confirmed by the Senate on March 3, 1801, Adams' final day in office William Marbury was one of the men appointed to a five-year term as justice of the peace in the newly created District of Columbia Background of Marbury v. Madison John Marshall, who was Secretary of State under Adams, was responsible for completing the paperwork and delivering the official "commissions" to each of the newly appointed judges, but the administration ended before he could undertake this task. Adams' justices of the peace were nominated on March 2, 1801, and confirmed by the Senate on March 3, 1801.

Although Marshall worked late into the night completing the registration of appointments and affixing the official Presidential seal, there was no time for Marshall to deliver the paperwork before he and Adams left office on February 13, 18013.

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