Marbury v. Madison: Judicial Review Established

Chief Justice John Marshall's opinion in Marbury v. Madison, issued on February 24, 1803, established the principle of judicial review by declaring a provision of the Judiciary Act of 1789 unconstitutional. Marshall's political genius was in how he did it: William Marbury, a Federalist appointee, had asked the Supreme Court to force Secretary of State James Madison to deliver his commission. Marshall ruled that Marbury deserved his commission but that the Court lacked jurisdiction to order Madison to deliver it, because the law granting that jurisdiction was itself unconstitutional. By ruling against his own political allies, Marshall avoided a confrontation with President Jefferson that the Court would have lost, while establishing a far more valuable power: the authority of the judiciary to void acts of Congress. The decision went largely unnoticed at the time. Its full significance became apparent only decades later as the Court exercised the power Marshall had quietly claimed.