History with the Cap'n- Supreme Beginnings

For any American who complains about activist judges or courts that interpret the U.S. Constitution as a "living document", today marks a dark anniversary. On the other side of the coin, anyone who feels the judicial branch should have a prominent role in the checks and balances of the U.S. government, today give cause to celebrate. On February 24th, 1803 the U.S. Supreme Court ruled on the case of Marbury v. Madison, the first Supreme Court case important enough to merit inclusion in a high school textbook. With this opinion, the high court actually proved they had a role to play in the national government by using their power to screw around with another branch of government and create a complicated mess. And they haven't stopped since.

For a summary of the actual legal case you can follow this link. Though for our purposes you don't need to know much more than you read in your high school text book. The case involved a complaint by civil servant, Marbury, against the U.S. Secretary of State James Madison, for not granting Marbury the commission previous president John Adams had promised him. He went to the Supreme Court -which up to this point hadn't really done much worth talking about- because Congress had passed a law giving the Supreme Court the power to issue a special kind of court orders. The Supreme Court ruled that Marbury had a right to the commission, but the Supreme Court would not be issuing the order forcing Madison's hands. At which point I imagine Marbury said "Ummmm . . . Thanks?". Chief Justice, John Marshall made clear it was not simply to uphold the Court's tradition of being useless, but because the law that Congress passed establishing the special court orders was illegitimate. The Court's opinion states that under the rules of the U.S. Constitution Congress does not have the authority to create special powers for the Supreme Court. This was an amazing bit of legal maneuvering, especially when you consider that no one had ever declared a law unconstitutional before. Faced with a court case that demanded the Supreme Court act as a referee for an intra-governmental squabble, Marshall found a way to elevate the Court to the level of the other branches. Rather than let Court become caught up in political bickering, Marshall used this case to declare that the Supreme Court was above messing with this sort of nonsense, that the ultimate standard for what was right and legal was the Constitution, and that the Court was the only body empowered with say whether or not something met the Constitutional standard. If you are a legal scholar, this case represents the kind of legal judo move that you dream about.

Everyone can find a very entertaining collection of backstories connected to this case, especially for the man in the middle of it all Chief Justice John Marshall.

• A lot of strange twists to this story arise from the fact that during the early years of the United States the federal government was composed of a pretty small collection of people. For instance, when John Marshall joined the Supreme Court, all the Justices lived in the same house by themselves (none of them brought their wives). Apparently they didn't have much to do except discuss the cases and drink heavily. I think this sounds like the basis for a great reality TV series.

• In one of those touches so ironic it has to be true, John Marshall likely had only himself to blame for creating this mess. Before he was Chief Justice John Marshall he was Secretary of State John Marshall. That means when John Adams ordered for Marbury to receive the commission it was supposed to be John Marshall's responsibility to issue it. However, Marshall was busy at the time, and when he was appointed by Adams to become Chief Justice he passed along the responsibility for Marbury's commission to his successor. We can only guess if he would have done anything differently had he known what was coming.

• Marshall was the cousin of Thomas Jefferson, yet repeatedly found himself angering his blood relative. President Jefferson did not care for the Court's ruling in Marbury v. Madison. Not only was his administration chastised in the Court's opinion for mistreating Marbury, who got the commission because he was a supporter of Jefferson's longtime rival John Adams, but Jefferson was also opposed to the federal courts gaining any power. With this case the Supreme Court put itself in a position of power strong enough to directly challenge the actions of the president himself. Jefferson held such a grudge about this decision that he would try to appoint Supreme Court Justices loyal to him to undermine Marshall. Yet Marshall was such a persuasive legal debater that the other Justices kept backing Marshall's arguments in the Court's rulings. Apparently the relationship between these cousins got so bad that Jefferson later declared he would never agree with any position Marshall took, even if he was just saying it was daytime.

• It had been widely believed that the last time the Liberty Bell rang before it irreparably cracked was to mark the death of John Marshall, after he had become the longest serving Chief Justice in the history of the Supreme Court. However current historical scholarship suggests that it rang at least a few more times before it was cracked sounding a celebratory chime in honor of George Washington's birthday.