Discuss the significance of Marbury v Madison PDF

Preview

Summary

Download Discuss the significance of Marbury v Madison PDF

Description

Name: Tishalina Reddie

Discuss the significance of Marbury v Madison. Marbury v Madison is one of the most significant and important cases in United States history. The main reason for the case’s significance and importance is because it established judicial review, allowing the supreme court to challenge laws made the legislature in order to protect the supremacy of the US Constitution. The term Judicial Review refers to the power of courts to reach independent judgements about the meaning of the Constitution and thus to set aside laws, regulations and policies that conflict with the judicial construction of the Constitution. 1Both state and federal courts have the authority to review executive as well as legislative action, at national state and local levels. 2 This promoting the separation of powers between the judiciary and the legislature and the judiciary and the executive creating a system of checks and balances. As well as that it, brought about challenges on future cases such as McCulloh v Maryland and cases revolving round the 13th amendment of the constitution, which I will explain further in this essay. The case of Marbury v Madison, has also been controversial, due the fact that it gives a great amount power to the judiciary, which has been criticised due to their undemocratic state (they’re unelected officials), and have been called to take the places of the legislature as they are allowed to make laws to suit the constitution as was said in the decision of the case that its long-run effect has been to increase the Court’s power by establishing the rule that ‘it is emphatically the province and duty of the judicial department to say what the law is.’ 3 Marshall stated in Marbury that the principle that, “an act of the legislature, repugnant to the constitution is void… is essentially attached to a written constitution.” The argument from supremacy begins with the proposition enshrined in Article VI, that the Constitution is the supreme law of the land, superior to ordinary law. 4This means that if the legislature (Congress), passes a law that contradicts the Constitution, the Constitution prevails and that law becomes void. This is very important because this means that the case has made the judiciary the sole protectors of the Constitution. However, there have been issues raised as to how the Supreme Court would know that a law is unconstitutional, this is was mentioned in the case by Marshall; he added a proposition that, “it is emphatically the province and duty of the judicial department to say what the law is.” Marshall is basically saying that Constitutional law should be treated like ordinary laws in order to know what law is and how to know if a law is unconstitutional. The case of Marbury has allowed the Judiciary to protect the Constitution in many ways and the protection of rights, due to judicial review and the supremacy of the constitution. We can see this through the 14th amendment of the constitution, which states that; “No State shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States.” 5This amendment was used to challenge the case of Brown v Education Board (1954), where the court declared the segregation rule was unconstitutional and violated the 14th amendment if the US Constitution. This was where states were segregating public schools by race and “coloured people”, had a learning environment different to those of noncolour. This shows the significance of Marbury v Madison, that ever since judicial review, the supreme court has been able to protect the rights of minorities, which is what the legislature undermines. In Marbury, Chief Justice contended that the very writtenness of the Constitution entails judicial review. “To what purpose are powers limited, and to what purpose is that limitation committed to 1 Constitutional Law, Michael C. Dorth with Trevor W. Morrison, page 12 2 Constitutional Law, Michael C. Dorth with Trevor W. Morrison, page 13 3 https://www.history.com/topics/united-states-constitution/marbury-v-madison 4 Constitutional Law, Michael C. Dorth with Trevor W. Morrison, page 26 5 https://www.history.com/topics/black-history/fourteenth-amendment#section_4

Name: Tishalina Reddie writing,” he asked, “if these limits may, at any time, be passed by those intended to be restrained?” 6 Marshall states that the constitution is written, he concludes that we have a reason for writing down a constitution that is unrelated to judicial review, to settle certain matters rather than have a memory. He also states that Constitution’s writtenness does not logically entail judicial review, but the contrast it creates with the traditional understanding of the English constitution exerts a strong psychological pull in the direction of judicial review. 7In the Federalist Paper No. 78, one of the founding fathers; Alexander Hamilton, discussed the power of judicial review and wrote that the It argues that the federal courts have the job of determining whether acts of Congress are constitutional and what must be done if government is faced with the things that are done on the contrary of the Constitution8. In the constitution it is written that the Constitution is the supreme land in law, therefore it shows in the constitution that there should be judicial review, as congress are not allowed to challenge the constitution and in order for this to happen, the courts are made to make sure that congress doesn’t over step their boundaries when making constitutional laws. For example, in a game of football, it doesn’t say in the rule book that there needs to be a referee in order to make sure that the players are playing correctly, however the players know not to kick offside or to go past a certain line, just like Congress know not to make laws that are unconstitutional, but the rule book of a football game implies the idea of a referee for reassurance, to make sure such mistakes don’t happen, this is the same as the Constitution, even though it doesn’t talk about judicial review, it implies it in the constitution. This leading to the case of Marbury v Madison defining judicial review, which therefore confirms its importance. Marbury v Madison, has not only allowed the federal courts to exercise judicial review but also state courts to review state legislature laws and make them void if they are unconstitutional. The case has also had caused controversy in the future cases. This can be seen in the case of McCulloh v Maryland, where the justices in the supreme court upheld the power of Congress to create a national bank as it wasn’t part of their power listed in the Constitution. This is very significant because ever since Marbury the supreme court had become more harsh on Congress and on whilst they were allowed to pass as law. It became apparent that the Supreme Court were becoming the new legislatures in a mask, by limiting Congress’ power. So you can say that Marbury is significant as it limited Congress’ power to enact certain laws it otherwise would if the case did not take place. In the case of Martin v Lessee, also shows the significance of the decision in Marbury v Madison, where it was ruled that, “the tract belonged to Martin under the treaty between the U.S. and Great Britain, and that Virginia could not refuse to obey a U.S. Supreme Court ruling.” 9This is because the court argued that the U.S. Supreme Court has the power to review and reverse decisions by State courts with regard to questions of federal law and the U.S. Constitution, and State courts must follow those decisions to ensure that the law is applied equally across all the States. 10This case is one of the cases alongside Marbury that established the U.S Supreme Court will always have the final word. To conclude, it is clear the decision made in Marbury v Madison, is very important as it unlocked the key to judicial review, which since then has allowed the U.S. Supreme Court to make laws passed by congress unconstitutional, which has caused a lot of controversial and has said to limit the power of Congress. This can be seen in the case of McCulloh v Maryland which I discussed above. Since the Constitution is the supreme law and no law can be passed to challenge it, this outs great power on 6 Constitutional Law, Michael C. Dorth with Trevor W. Morrison, page 23 7 Constitutional Law, Michael C. Dorth with Trevor W. Morrison, page 26 8https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Federalist_No._78#:~:text=Federalist%20No.%2078%20is%20an%20essay %20by%20Alexander,it%20was%20published%20under%20the%20pseudonym%20Publius%20. 9 https://legaldictionary.net/martin-v-hunters-lessee/ 10 https://legaldictionary.net/martin-v-hunters-lessee/

Name: Tishalina Reddie the judiciary, we can say no linger makes them the weakest branch in the U.S. as they have the final say on what gets passed and what doesn’t, as we can see with the case regarding the 14th amendment, which I discussed. The confirmation has not only allowed the Supreme Court to protect the constitution from unlawful laws, but to also protect the rights of minorities, which congress would try to undermine such as in the case of Brown v Education Board (1954), however, it said that Marbury v Madison has placed too much power on the Supreme Court, as it amounts to usurpation of the legislative role....