Marbury and Madison

Question

What is the constitutional issue between Marbury and Madison during the jefferson era

Answer 1

The constitutional issue in Marbury v. Madison (1803) was whether the Supreme Court had the authority to order Secretary of State James Madison to deliver William Marbury’s judicial commission — and, more broadly, whether the Court could declare a law passed by Congress unconstitutional.

After President John Adams appointed Marbury as a “midnight judge,” Thomas Jefferson’s administration refused to deliver the commission. Marbury sued, asking the Supreme Court to issue a writ of mandamus under Section 13 of the Judiciary Act of 1789.

Chief Justice John Marshall faced a dilemma: if the Court ordered Madison to deliver the commission, Jefferson would likely ignore it. Instead, Marshall ruled that although Marbury was entitled to the commission, the portion of the Judiciary Act that gave the Court power to issue the writ expanded the Court’s original jurisdiction beyond what Article III of the Constitution allowed. Therefore, that section of the law was unconstitutional.

The major constitutional issue, then, was judicial review — the power of the Supreme Court to interpret the Constitution and strike down laws that conflict with it.

This case established the principle that the Constitution is the supreme law of the land and that it is the role of the judiciary to say what the law is.