On this date in 1803, the Supreme Court decided Marbury v. Madison, 5 U.S. 137 (1803), the important case that confirmed the legal principle of judicial review – the ability of the Supreme Court to limit Congressional power by declaring legislation unconstitutional – in the new nation.
The notion of courts declaring statutes void dates back to 17th century England, but was not established as a role of the U.S. Supreme Court until the Court decided Marbury. The case came out of a controversy over whether William Marbury should be allowed to serve as a lower court justice, a position he was appointed to by President Adams, just before he exited his presidency. In an attempt to advance the interests of his political party, Adams appointed several like-minded justices to lower court judgeships, just before he left office. The Senate quickly approved the appointments, but the new judgeships would only become official upon the hand-delivery of a commission to each one. Outgoing Secretary of State, John Marshall was charged with the task of making all of the hand-deliveries, but was unable to complete all of the deliveries, including Marbury’s. Marshall assumed the new Secretary of State, James Madison, would finish where he left off. When Jefferson, of a rival political party, took office he ordered Madison to not complete the deliveries.
Marbury sought legal redress by filing a petition for writ of mandamus in the Supreme Court. But because Marbury filed his petition for writ of mandamus directly in the Supreme Court, the Court needed to be able to exercise original jurisdiction over the case in order to have the power to hear it. The Court, with John Marshall as Chief Justice, first found that Madison’s refusal to deliver the commission was both illegal and correctible. Nonetheless, the Court stopped short of ordering Madison (by writ of mandamus) to hand over Marbury’s commission, instead holding that the provision of the Judiciary Act of 1789 that enabled Marbury to bring his claim to the Supreme Court was itself unconstitutional, since it purported to extend the Court’s original jurisdiction beyond that which Article III of the Constitution established. The petition was therefore denied.
The legacy of Marbury v. Madison is important because this controversy for the first time presented our young country with the question of what to do when an act of Congress conflicts with the Constitution. Marshall answered that conflicting acts are void, and courts are instead bound to follow the Constitution, affirming the legal principle of judicial review and paving the way for the Supreme Court we know today.