Marbury vs Madison

SEQ CHAPTER \h \r 1 Emergence of the Judiciary

The case of Marbury v . Madison

In 1801 the case of Marbury v . Madison may have seemed to be relatively limited in it 's potential impact . The issue of whether or not a judge should be allowed to take the bench was inconsequential to most Americans . Daily life and the growing pains of a young nation were of far greater concern . In time , however , Marbury v . Madison would come to have a profound effect on the lives Americans lead today

The rule of

law is a fundamental concept in American democratic theory The success of the democracy is completely reliant on adherence to that law . On it 's face , this is a simple concept . In practice it is not so simple

What happens when a law conflicts with the Constitution or with individual rights ? How much power do the President , Congress and the judicial system have , respectively , in defining law ? When and how can laws be changed ? In a theoretical sense , these questions were addressed by the Constitution . The Supreme Court has a critically important function in making the bridge between theory and practice . We are used to such issues being dealt with frequently today . We benefit from having established precedent to fall back on

In 1801 this was not yet the case . Marbury v . Madison was vitally important to the growth of the American nation because it provided a building block for future law in the most critical areas of the U .S Constitution . Had the case not been decided wisely , a ripple effect would have fundamentally changed the culture and rights we take for granted today . Important social change has been accomplished by using the power of the judicial system firmly established in Marbury

The Constitution and The Declaration of Independence are eloquent statements of the rights of the individual . At the time Marbury took place , however , Americans were still enslaved . Discrimination and other governmental abuses were rampant . Government abuses gave legitimacy to social abuses . Marbury did not cure any of these ills . It did serve as a humble start to a very long process in which individual rights were protected . Technically speaking , this was a case about the plight of a single judge . In reality , it was about much , much more . As a result of its long-term , continuing impact on government , culture and individual lives Marbury v . Madison ranks as the most important case in American jurisprudence

Background

The Marbury v . Madison case as the result of a Federalist against Anti-Federalist political battle . This often heated philosophical conflict had gone on since Colonial times . Federalists believed that the only way to survive as a nation was to have a centralized government with strong powers . Anti-Federalists felt the exact opposite way . The Revolution itself had been fought to shake off just such a government Individual rights were paramount both in the moral sense and for the ultimate survival of the nation . Anti-Federalists doubted that a strong centralized government could...