The Marshall Court (1801 to 1835)

OBJECTIVE(S): Describe the function of the judicial branch Describe the function of the judicial branch Explain how the Marshall Court impacted United States history Explain how the Marshall Court impacted United States history Identify the historical circumstances surrounding the landmark cases from this era Identify the historical circumstances surrounding the landmark cases from this era

I. Appointed by President John Adams (he was his Secretary of State) upon the sweeping victory of Jefferson’s Democratic- Republicans, Federalist John Marshall presided as Chief Justice of the Supreme Court over a very important period of judicial history.

There are a handful of key cases that symbolize how the Marshall Court strengthened the power of the federal government at the nation’s inception.

II. Marbury v. Madison (1803— during Thomas Jefferson's Presidency)

A. Marbury v. Madison is perhaps the most important Supreme Court of all time because it established the Court’s power of judicial review.

B. The Constitution—which only establishes that there will be a judicial branch of the federal government—left it to Congress to decide how the federal court system would actually work.

C. So the Federalist controlled Congresses under Washington and Adams passed laws—judiciary acts—setting up federal court system.

D. When Adams and the Federalists lost the presidency and control of Congress to Jefferson’s and the Democratic- Republicans in the election of 1800, the lame-duck Federalist Congress passed the Judiciary Act of 1801, creating new judgeships for Adams to appoint Federalists to so that they could maintain control of one of the branches of government.

E. Jefferson and his Secretary of State, future President James Madison, refused to deliver all of Adams’ last minute appointments, leading William Marbury—whom Adams had appointed as Justice of the Peace for the District of Columbia—to sue to have the Supreme Court force Madison to give him his appointment.

F. Instead of siding with Marbury, Marshall’s court found the Judiciary Acts to be in violation of the Constitution. The Court asserted that laws passed by Congress that violated the Constitution were null and void.

G. They called this process of checking to see if a law was Constitutional or not judicial review and it quickly became the most import role of the Supreme Court, even though it is not in the Constitution itself.

III. McCulloch v. Maryland (1819— during James Monroe's Presidency)

A. The Bank of the United States, as created by Alexander Hamilton during Washington’s Presidency, had to be re- approved—or re-chartered— periodically by Congress. While on its second charter, the state of Maryland passed a law taxing any out-of-state banks. The only one was the Second Bank of the United States.

B. James McCulloch, director of the Baltimore branch of the Bank of the United States, refused to pay the tax. In the ensuing court case, the Maryland court—using a strict interpretation of the Constitution— argued that Congress violated the Constitution by creating the bank.

With that argument, the case also took on a new dimension as it argued that the States were more powerful than the national government.

C. The case was appealed to the Supreme Court.

C.

The Marshall Court ruled that the federal government did have the power to create the bank, citing the implied powers of the “necessary and proper” clause of the Constitution. The Court also ruled that the States could not interfere with an action of the federal government, asserting the supremacy of the national government over the states.

IV. Gibbons v. Ogden (1824—during James Monroe's Presidency)

A. The New York State Legislature granted exclusive rights for the operation of steamboats in New York waters to Robert R. Livingston and Robert Fulton. They in turn, sold a license to Aarron Ogden to use his steamships in New York waters.

B. Thomas Gibbons was a competing steamship operator based out of New Jersey. He ran his ships from New Jersey to New York City. Ogden filed suit against him to stop him from sailing in New York waters because he had exclusive rights to do so.

C. The issue of the cases was whether or not a state could make a law limiting interstate—between states—trade. Gibbons argued that only the federal government could make laws about interstate trade and that the New York law grating exclusive rights was unconstitutional.

Despite this, the New York court found in favor of Ogden and issued an injunction preventing Gibbons from legally operating in New York waters.

D. Gibbons attorneys appealed the case all the way to the Supreme Court. The Court ruled that the Commerce Clause of the United States Constitution gives the federal government sole authority to make laws regarding trade between states and any state law attempting to do the same was unconstitutional and, therefore, null and void.

V. Worcester v. Georgia (1832— during Andrew Jackson's Presidency)

A. In the 1820’s and 1830’s, the state of Georgia had begun a campaign to try to force the Cherokee tribe to resettle west. The Cherokees brought their fight for their lands to the courts, citing a Georgia law the prohibited non-Indians from being on Indian land without a state license.

1. This law was made to prevent white missionaries, such as Samuel Worcester and six others, from encouraging Native American resistance to removal.

2. Worcester and the other missionaries refused to apply for the licenses (that would have been denied anyway) and were tried and convicted.

B. In that case, Worcester and the missionaries claimed that they had not done anything wrong because the Georgia law was being enforced on sovereign Native American territory. They claimed that only the federal government could make such a law, so the state law was unconstitutional.

C. When the case was appealed to the Supreme Court, the Court agreed and ordered Worcester freed. Native American tribes were to be treated the same as foreign nations and only the federal government had the authority to deal with them.

D. But the case did not make any ruling to stop Indian removal. Andrew Jackson had made his name, in part, as an Indian fighter. When he became President, Jackson suggested and pushed Congress to pass the Indian Removal Act of The Act ordered the removal of all Native Americans east of the Mississippi River to be moved west.

VI. The Era of the Marshall Court is remembered most for it strengthening of the new central government of the United States. In issues over supremacy, it routinely ruled in favor of the national government at the expense of the states. Marshall who served longer than any other Chief Justice in history, also made the Court itself more powerful by articulating and exercising the power of judicial review.