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Supreme Court Case: Marbury V. Madison

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Marbury v Madison was a landmark case since it established the power of judicial review for the Judicial Branch. At the time, this was the result of a politically motivated case. The results of this case would be under appreciated for decades. The Chief Justice in this case, John Marshall, did not settle for instant gratification in this case by bowing to its political nature. Instead, he strategically decided this case in order to grant the Supreme Court more power by establishing judicial review. Judicial review is the ability of a court, in this case the Supreme Court, to decided if a law violates existing law or the United States Constitution. This was a move that would be unappreciated for decades.
To begin, John Adams was a Federalist and was president until 1800. His vice president, Thomas Jefferson, was a Democratic Republican and disagreed with Adams so …show more content…
The first was if Marbury even had a right to the commission? If he did, then did the law afford him a remedy since he had never received it? Finally, if yes, was that remedy a mandamus issuing from the court?
The answers to the first two questions were yes. Marbury had a legal right to the commission and should be afforded a remedy. However, Marshall argued that the remedy could not come from the Supreme Court because under Article III of the Constitution, the Court was not even technically allowed to hear this case. Article III outlined in which cases the Court had original jurisdiction, and this case did not meet the criteria.
This decision was met by confusion on both sides of the political spectrum. Marshall was a Federalist, and had been appointed to the position of Chief Justice by Adams. Both sides had expected Marshall to grant Marbury the writ in order to give Marbury the justice of the peace position. His fellow Federalists deemed Marshall a traitor. However, neither political party fully understood what Marshall’s decision had

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