The Marshall Court

In 1801, outgoing President John Adams named John Marshall to be the fourth Chief Justice of the United States.

At the time of his appointment, Marshall was serving as secretary of state in the Adams administration. Before that, he had been an officer in the Revolutionary War, a member of Virginia's House of Delegates, a diplomatic envoy to France, and a member of Congress. Like Adams, Marshall was a devoted Federalist, committed to the supremacy of national power and the construction of a national economy.

Before Marshall joined the Court, each justice wrote a separate opinion for each case. Recognizing that this practice undermined the legitimacy of the fledgling Court, Marshall insisted that the Court's majority issue a single written opinion; these were often authored by Marshall himself, and they were frequently unanimous. Although this change did serve to enhance the reputation of the Court, Marshall's legal-reasoning skills and his political savvy were primarily responsible for establishing Marshall's legacy as the most influential Chief Justice in the Supreme Court's history.

Marshall's genius became apparent in his first true test as Chief Justice, the 1803 case of Marbury v. Madison. In the waning hours of his presidency, Adams appointed a number of Federalists to newly created judicial positions, and the commissions were sent to Marshall, who, still serving as secretary of state, bore responsibility for affixing them with the Seal of the United States. In the confusion, Marbury didn't receive his commission, and incoming President Jefferson, a Democratic-Republican, instructed his new secretary of state, James Madison, to withhold Marbury's appointment. Marbury then brought suit in federal court.

If Marshall were to order Madison to deliver Marbury's commission, Madison would likely ignore the order. If Marshall were to determine that Marbury was not entitled to the commission, it would be a victory for Jefferson and his party. Faced with the dilemma of suffering a potentially fatal blow to the Court's prestige no matter which way the Court decided, Marshall found a way out of his predicament by declaring, on behalf of a unanimous Court, that the section of the legislation authorizing Marbury's position was itself unconstitutional. In so doing, Marshall established the precedent of judicial review, granting the Supreme Court the power to declare acts of the other branches of government unconstitutional.

Other landmark decisions that strengthened both the power of the Court and of the federal government came in the cases of Gibbons v. Ogden and McCulloch v. Maryland, which are both discussed in the Federalism Timeline.

In his opinion in McCulloch, Chief Justice Marshall declared:

We must never forget that it is a constitution we are expounding, intended to endure for ages to come, and consequently to be adapted to the various crises of human affairs.

Certainly, John Marshall's reputation has endured for the ages, a reputation as someone who made a lasting mark on the future of the Supreme Court through the force of both his leadership and intellect.