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Marbury V. Madison (1803)

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From the first time the Supreme Court met on Broad Street in New York City in February in 1790 to its current address in 1 First St NE in Washington DC. With this essay I will simply lay out the role and the pathway of the Court to become the arbiter of the existence and scope of individual rights. I will do my best to simply lay out the facts of the evolution of the court and to not put my political ideals into this paper. I will navigate specific cases, and adopted positions that enhanced or undermined its legitimacy as well as its authority. To give a layout of the Court in the Constitution is in Article III section 1. which “ The judicial Power of the United States, shall be vested in one supreme Court, and in such inferior Courts as the Congress may from …show more content…
The Federalists believed in establishing a strong, federal government and the Anti-Federalists thought the constitution gave the new government way too much power (4, Hudson). Marbury v. Madison (1803) was a case that came very early in the Court’s history. A little back story of President Adams wanting to pack as many court appointments before the Jefferson becomes President which infuriated the Jefferson-Republicans. Once Adams’ failed to give the commission's before his term came up. Jefferson instructed Madison to not deliver the rest of Adams’ appointments one which is William Marbury (46 sc &cp). With this case it brought up the untested power of judicial review. The result of the case cemented the role of judicial review with the court even though it is not in the Constitution, but Chief Justice Marshall. In Marshall’s quote “ It is the emphatically the province and duty of the Judicial Department to say what the law is.” Marshall not only established judicial review while declaring a statute unconstitutional that he read as expanding the Court’s powers( 47,Chemerinsky). This case was one of the early cases to highlight judicial

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