John Marshall and the
United States Supreme
Court
Judicial Review
Court Decisions
Federal Power
John Marshall and Supreme Court
John Marshall, Chief Justice (1801-1835)
Under Marshall, court favored a strong federal government and national
economy
Marshall gave the court weight and purpose as the third branch in the
separation of powers
Marshall would apply several Federalist principles in guiding the
Supreme Court

Under Marshall, the Supreme Court established Judicial Review (the power
to review acts of Congress and the President for constitutionality)
Marshall Court interfered with the state government’s power to interfere
with business contracts
Under Marshall, the Court determined that Federal law was superior to
state law
Marshall broadly interpreted the constitution by giving greater power to
the national government
Major Decisions
Marbury v. Madison



Only case Marshall presided over in which the Court deemed an act
unconstitutional
Judicial Review established when Marshall declared that the statute
for which Marbury was arguing was unconstitutional to begin with
Judicial review means a government in which no person (not even
the President) and no institution (not even Congress or the Supreme
Court itself), nor even a majority of voters, may freely work their will
in violation of the written Constitution
“It is emphatically the province and duty of the Judicial Department to
say what the law is. Those who apply the rule to particular cases must,
of necessity, expound and interpret that rule. If two laws conflict with
each other, the Courts must decide on the operation of each.”

Chief Justice John Marshall
"Certainly all those who have framed written constitutions contemplate
them as forming the fundamental and paramount law of the nation, and
consequently the theory of every such government must be, that an act
of the legislature repugnant to the Constitution is void."

Chief Justice John Marshall
Major Decisions
Fletcher v. Peck (1810)


States can not pass legislation invalidating a contract
First time Supreme Court declared a state law to be unconstitutional
Dartmouth College v. Woodward (1819)


New Hampshire law changed Dartmouth from privately charted college to public
institution
Supreme Court struck down the state law; it argued that a contract for a private
institution could not be altered by the state
McCulloch v. Maryland




Did Congress have power to create a bank even though no clause in Constitution
mentioned a bank? Could a state place a tax on a federally created bank?
State of Maryland tried to collect taxes from Second Bank of the United States
Using loose interpretation, Marshall ruled that the gov’t has implied powers to create
the bank
And, no state can tax a federal institution because “power to tax is power to destroy”
Gibbons v. Ogden (1824)


Marshall rejected a steamboat monopoly granted by state of New York
Marshall ruled that steamboat traffic in and out of New York was commerce and only
federal government can regulate interstate commerce
In Conclusion…
Marshall gave the third
branch of the federal
government a prominent
role in the US
Government
Guaranteed that rule of
law would be upheld in
the gov’t of the United
States
Marshall helped to build a
stronger federal
government