Marbury vs Madison 1803

Marbury v. Madison case is a Supreme Court case that is studied due to its legal and historical significance. In the United States, this is the pioneering as well as most influential legal proceedings ever experienced. The case was the first one of that kind as it looked into the administrative that has been classified given that the law involves all interactions involving the Federal Government (Law.com, 2015).

A Federalist, President John Adams, ran for reelection and lost to Thomas Jefferson of Republican Party. It was the same election that saw the federalist lose control over Congress. However, Adams and Federalist Party maintained their control for a few months. This was before the newly elected President and the new Congress took office. It was during this time that Adams decided to persuade the Judiciary Act of 1801 to be passed by the Congress into a new law. The act gave powers to the sitting President, Adam, to make appointments of a few new federal judges. The Federalists were hoping to fill into the nation's courts people who would be against the incoming administration's policies. Adams generally succeeded in his objectives as he managed to appoint 39 judges. His Secretary of State was required to deliver the official documents that would authorize the appointments (the commissions). However, Adams's term of office came to an end before the Secretary of State could delivered the commissions to three newly appointed justices. William Marbury was to receive one of the commissions (Infoplease, 2005).

Thomas Jefferson took the seat in March 1801 and learned how the Federalists had attempted to fill the court with judges allied to them. He also found out that some commissions had not been delivered. Jefferson instructed James Madison, his Secretary of State, to reject the appointments.

In an attempt to get his post back, Marbury decided to go to the Supreme Court. He urged the Court to issue an order that would force Madison to give Marbury the commission. The Supreme Court had power, in accordance with The Judiciary Act of 1789, to issue an order of that nature.

The Court's decision.

The Court, through Justice Marshall, wrote the unanimous decision stating that indeed, Marbury had a right to get the commission. More importantly, however, was the fact that the Judiciary Act of 1789 was considered to be unconstitutional. According to Marshall, Congress was not in the position to give the Supreme Court the power to issue the order that would grant the commission to Marbury. Only the Constitution had such powers and nothing about the powers of Supreme Court to issue the order had been stated. Therefore, the Supreme Court did not have the power to force Jefferson and Madison into appointing Marbury.

In his ruling, Chief Justice Marshall interpreted the Constitution as meaning that the Supreme Court had the power of judicial review. This meant that the Court was given the right to review Congress acts. The Court could therefore overrule the law if it found it to be unconstitutional.

Majority and dissenting opinions.

The Court therefore made the decision that Marbury had based his request on a law passed by Congress while requesting for a writ of mandamus, which the Court considered unconstitutional. The Court made a unanimous decision that the federal law had gone contrary to the Constitution. Thus, the Constitution being the Supreme Law of the Land, was the most important and powerful. Through this particular case, the power of judicial review was established by Chief Justice John Marshall; the Court has the power to not only statute or to interpret a law's constitutionality but also has the ability to conduct the process as well as enforcing its decision.