permission to order a department of the Executive Branch to issue commissions. The only problem here is that the Constitution does not grant the Supreme Court jurisdiction in this sphere.

All this led to even greater animosity than before between the Democratic-Republicans and the Federalists, with Justice Marshall belonging to the latter and President Jefferson to the former. Justice Marshall's statement that Marbury was entitled to his post as a judge did little to endear him to the president even though the decision ultimately ruled in Jefferson's favor. As a result, Jefferson and his supporters launched many public statements against Marshall and his court.

This landmark case came out of the bitter political dispute between the outgoing Federalist Administration led by President Adams and the incoming Democratic-Republican Administration led by the new president, Thomas Jefferson. After going down to defeat in the 1800 election, the Federalists wanted to stymie the Democratic-Republicans' legislative agenda by packing the judiciary with their appointees. One of these men was a man called William Marbury.

Unfortunately for him, he didn't receive the letter confirming his judicial appointment in time, so he wasn't given his promised position as judge. Incensed at being deprived at what he considered was rightfully his, he sued the new Administration, in the person of the Secretary of State, James Madison.

The Supreme Court had to maintain a very delicate balance in this case. It consisted overwhelming of Federalist supporters of the outgoing Adams Administration. And though they were inevitably hostile to the new government, the justices of the Court recognized that if they displayed overt partisanship in reaching their decision, then the Democratic-Republican controlled Congress would almost certainly clip its wings.

So in his landmark decision, Chief Justice Marshall cleverly gave with one hand, but took with the other. Marbury would not be awarded his judicial commission, despite the actions of the new Administration being unlawful. In handing down this decision, the Court was invalidating the statute which had given it the power to decide this case in the first place. So on the face of it, although the Administration had won the case, at the same time the Supreme Court had given itself the power to strike down legislation it deemed unconstitutional, the power of judicial review, which it has held ever since.

In the election of 1800, Thomas Jefferson of the Democratic-Republican Party defeated John Adams of the Federalist Party. John Adams wanted to ensure that the judiciary would continue to have many judges who were more supportive of views of the Federalists. Thus, just before his term ended, he appointed many Federalist judges—an action which was called the Midnight Appointments. However, not all of the judges had their commissions delivered before John Adams' presidency ended. Thomas Jefferson told his Secretary of State, James Madison, not to deliver the commissions of the judges who were in this category.

William Marbury was one of these judges. He sued, and the Supreme Court heard the case. The Supreme Court ruled that it was acceptable that these commissions were not delivered. The most important part of this decision was that the Supreme Court said it had the power of judicial review. This meant that the Supreme Court could determine if a law or action was constitutional. This has given much power to the Supreme Court, since it can strike down a law that it views as unconstitutional. When laws are passed, Congress needs to work to be sure that they will be viewed as constitutional. There have been many instances in which the Supreme Court ruled that a law was not constitutional, such as with the National Industrial Recovery Act and the Agricultural Adjustment Act, which were laws passed during the New Deal.

The case of Marbury v. Madison impacted the United States by giving the Supreme Court much more power in our political system.  This eventually led to some major events in US history.

Before Marbury it was not clear that the Supreme Court could say that laws passed by Congress were unconstitutional.  In Marbury, the Court declared that it had that power, which we call the power of judicial review.  This did not change the US right away.  However, the Supreme Court eventually started using this power in ways that did change the country.

When the Supreme Court started using the power of judicial review, it had some major impacts on the country.  For example, the Dred Scott decision overturned the Missouri Compromise.  This meant that political compromise between the North and South would be harder to come by.  Eventually, this decision helped to start the Civil War.

Later on, in 1896, the Supreme Court decided the case of Plessy v. Ferguson.  In that case, it decided that the Constitution allowed white-run governments to discriminate against African Americans and to impose segregation on them.  This continued until the Court made another tremendously important decision in Brown v. Board of Education in 1954.  Then, the Court banned segregation, making it possible for us to get closer to true racial equality.

We can still see the Court’s power today.  It decided that abortion was a right in Roe v. Wade.  It recently decided that there is a right to same-sex marriage.  If it were not for the ruling in Marbury, these changes might not have occurred in our country.  Therefore, this case impacted the US by giving the Supreme Court a great deal of power to shape our society.

The Marbury v Madison case was a huge case for the United States government. Specifically, the Supreme Court ruled that a state can't tax a federal institution, in this case the bank of the United States. However, there were other points much more important than that. First, this case reinforced the concept of judicial review. This gives the courts the power to determine if laws are legal (constitutional) or not (unconstitutional). This is a huge power for the courts, and it serves as part of the checks and balances in our federal system. Second, it reinforced the idea that the federal government may interpret the constitution in a loose manner. This would give the federal government a lot more latitude to make decisions. Basically, a loose view means the government can do something unless the Constitution strictly forbids this from happening. Marbury v Madison was one of the most important court cases in our history.