U.S. History
Important Supreme Court Cases in U.S. History:
Marbury v. Madison (1803):
There have been hundreds of thousands of cases that have been tried before the United States’
court system. Chief Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes ruled that the right to free speech is limited if
such speech creates unnecessary panic in the case of Schenk v. the United States (1919). In the case of
Brown v. the Board of Education (1954) the court ruled that schools could not discriminate on the
basis of race. The court decided that states did not have the right to ban interracial marriage in the
case of Loving v. Virginia (1967). All of these cases are viewed as important legal milestones in
American history, but historians argue that none of them would have been possible if not for the case
of Marbury v. Madison (1803).
Before he left office in 1801, President John Adams, a Federalist, appointed as many Federalist
judges as he could in the nation’s courts. Adams hoped that Marshall and the other judges would
“check and balance” the powers of Thomas Jefferson, the newly elected Democratic-Republican
president. While Adams signed the letters which officially appointed the new judges, he failed to
actually deliver most of them before leaving office. President Jefferson did not want the courts to be
packed with Federalist judges, so he did not deliver them.
One of the appointees, William Marbury, failed to receive his letter and he asked the Supreme
Court to order James Madison, the Secretary of State, to deliver the letter. The decision of the court
became known as Marbury v. Madison. The court ruled that Marbury should have received his letter,
but the court also ruled that Section 13 of the Judiciary Act of 1789, under which Marbury had filed
his lawsuit, was unconstitutional. Therefore, Madison was not legally required to appoint Marbury or
any of the other Federalists to whom Adams had failed to deliver letters.
The details of the case are historically unimportant. The precedent established by the case is
extremely important. Legal historians note that Marbury v. Madison established the court’s power of
judicial review. Judicial review is an extraordinary federal power which allows the Supreme Court to
have the final say when determining if laws enacted by Congress and the President are constitutional
(legal) or unconstitutional (illegal). Once the court has ruled that a law
is unconstitutional, neither Congress nor the President can re-enact the
law. The case of Marbury v. Madison may have seemed trivial at the time,
but the verdict transformed the Supreme Court into one of the most
powerful branches of the United States’ government.
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Core:
U.S. History
Time to Summarize:
Marbury v. Madison: The Most Important Court Case in
American History!
1. Which of the following best describes the main idea of this article?
a. Judicial review is an extraordinary federal power that gives the Supreme Court the
right to determine if laws are constitutional or unconstitutional.
b. The case of Marbury v. Madison transformed the Supreme Court into one of the most
powerful branches of the United States’ government..
c. The Supreme Court is an important branch of our government because the cases it
decides affect free speech, education and marriage.
d. In the case of Marbury v. Madison the court determined that Marbury should have
been appointed as a judge, but the law that he filed his lawsuit under was
unconstitutional.
2. Write a summary of today’s reading. Keep in mind the “Characteristics of a Well Written
Summary” as you write.
The Characteristics of a Well-Written Summary
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Begins by stating the main idea of the text (paraphrase)
Paraphrases the major details from the text
Major details included clearly support the main idea
Follows the structure of the original text
Brief, but still shows a deep understanding of the text
Concludes with a thoughtful statement about the main idea of the text
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