The Marshall Court

When the Constitution was ratified, it had little to say about the Supreme Court. As a result, the Supreme Court remained relatively insignificant for the first decade of its existence. In fact, the Supreme Court was so insignificant the first Chief Justice of the United States, John Jay, resigned his post to run for the more prestigious office of Governor of New York. To add further insult to injury, when the new national capital of Washington D.C. was designed and built the Supreme Court was not given its own building. Rather, the court was forced to meet in the basement of the Capital building. Despite all the set backs of its early years, the Supreme Court would begin march towards power with President John Adams appointing his Secretary of State, John Marshall, to the position of Chief Justice of the United States. Marshall’s Court, through a series of cases, would build and expand the powers of the Supreme Court. This in turn gave the court the ability to shape American Law into a form that benefited the Federal Government and the Constitution of the United States. It was John Marshall making the Supreme Court relevant that allowed the Constitution to remain relevant.

The first major case the Marshall Court heard was Marbury v. Madison in 1803. The case tested the ability of the Supreme Court to remain politically neutral (Smith, 1996). The case has its origins in the 1801 midnight appointments of President John Adams. William Marbury, one of President John Adams’s midnight appointments, along with four other appointees, failed to receive their commissions from the Adams administration. While Marbury was waiting for his commission, Thomas Jefferson and Democratic-Republican Party had taken over the presidency and both houses of Congress. Once in power President Jefferson ordered his Secretary of State, James Madison, not to deliver any of the commissions that remained from the Adams administration. William Marbury, seeking to claim his...