Volu m e I - Purdue University Calumet

Marshall handed down his opinion in Marbury v Madison. Marshall understood the criticality of this case to
the judicial branch. It would be this decision that would either establish the Court’s independence and
legitimacy or expose it’s weakness as an inferior branch.
Marbury v Madison came about, because just before President Adams left office he nominated
William Marbury to be justice of the peace for the District of Columbia. Marbury’s nomination was
confirmed by the Senate and his commission was signed and sealed. However when Jefferson took office he
ordered his Secretary of State James Madison not to deliver any commissions thus not giving Marbury his
judgeship (Kommers, Finn and Jacobson 80).
Marshall was faced with two choices; both of which seemed as though they would have the
detrimental effects. Marshall could have chosen to rule in favor of Marbury ordering Madison to deliver the
commission, which would have resulted in Jefferson ignoring the Court’s decision demonstrating the
Court’s inability to execute its own rulings. He could have also chosen to deny Marbury his commission,
which would have resulted in the public viewing the Court as a political agent. Instead he “emphasized that
this case did not fall within the narrow categories of the Court’s original jurisdiction set out in the
Constitution. Therefore, he concluded, Section 13 of the Judiciary Act was unconstitutional” (Rosen 23).
This ruling maintained the Court’s independence in acting in correspondence to the Constitution as well as
showing its strength as a viable governmental branch.
As result to this ruling it became the duty of the Court to act as a “balancer” of powers, Marshall
explains this by saying that “there needs to be effectual limitation of the legislature and those limitations are
essentially attached to the written Constitution” (Faulkner 206). He also found that this function as the
balancer was necessary for preserving the republican principles the Constitution outlines (Faulkner
200/207).
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