Marbury Vs Madison Supreme Court Case

Words: 550
Pages: 3

The Supreme Court case of Marbury v. Madison took place in 1803 under the presidency of Thomas Jefferson. The reason for this case was the petitioning of William Marbury, who was appointed last-minute Justice of the Peace by John Adams, but the commissions were not delivered by the Secretary of State James Madison. The Court ultimately ruled in favor of Madison, and the Jefferson administration. However, the point that the podcast makes is that the decision of the case was not just a simple rejection of the position to Marbury. The verdict of the Supreme Court in the Marbury v. Madison case had a substantial impact on the structure of the nation through the establishing of judicial review, which gave the Supreme Court the power to declare laws …show more content…
Madison, the podcast offers some interesting insight into some of the major characters of the case. One example is that the Chief Justice John Marshall and President Thomas Jefferson were in fact second-cousins with extreme ideological differences, since Jefferson was of the Democratic-Republican Party and Marshall was a Federalist who was Secretary of State under John Adams. Another fact mentioned by the podcast is that the Supreme Court did not have the power and reputation that it does today, but Marshall and the court case changed all that. Marshall not only changed the way the Court presented itself in terms of items such as clothing, but he also changed the way that the other branches of government saw the Court. Marshall knew that Marbury had every right to pursue the position appointed to him by John Adams and that the Jefferson administration was in the wrong for not sending in those commissions, but he also knew that the Court did not have the power to force Jefferson to send them. Keeping this in mind, Marshall made the decision in favor of Madison because of a simple technicality: the law that Congress passed allowing for Marbury to go directly to the Supreme Court went against the Constitution. By declaring this act unconstitutional and denying Marbury of his position, the Supreme Court benefitted greatly from this since it established this institution as the official interpreter of the Constitution and allowed for greater power in government, by being able to keep the other branches in check