What were the long-term consequences of the Marbury v. Madison decision?
The long-term consequences of the Supreme Court’s 1803 decision in Marbury v. Madison were profound. In short, the decision, unanimous and penned by Chief Justice John Marshall, reaffirmed the status of the judicial branch of government, relative to that of the Legislative and Executive, and the primacy of the Constitution of the United States with respect to laws passed by the Legislative branch.
The case of Marbury v. Madison centered on the question of Congress’s constitutional authority to make laws and of the role of the Judiciary in reviewing the constitutionality of those laws. Basically, the Legislature could pass laws that did not adhere to the boundaries established by the Constitution but those laws could be invalidated if the Judiciary determined that they, the laws, transgressed the provisions of the Constitution. The provisions of the Constitution, as the supreme law of the land (per Article VI of the Constitution), are...
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inviolate and any law passed by Congress that exceeds, supplants, or undermines in any way those provisions is invalid. As Marshall wrote in his landmark decision regarding both the primacy of the Constitution and the role of the Judiciary in reviewing laws passed by the Legislative Branch:
. . . if a law be in opposition to the Constitution, if both the law and the Constitution apply to a particular case, so that the Court must either decide that case conformably to the law, disregarding the Constitution, or conformably to the Constitution, disregarding the law, the Court must determine which of these conflicting rules governs the case. This is of the very essence of judicial duty.
. . .
If, then, the Courts are to regard the Constitution, and the Constitution is superior to any ordinary act of the Legislature, the Constitution, and not such ordinary act, must govern the case to which they both apply.
. . .
This doctrine would subvert the very foundation of all written Constitutions.
In conclusion, the long-term consequences of the Supreme Court decision in Marbury v. Madison lie in the court’s reaffirmation of the supremacy of the Constitution as the law of the land and of the Judiciary’s role in maintaining the balance of power among competing branches of government by virtue of its power to review the actions of the Legislature and the Executive.
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What was the overall impact of the Marbury v. Madison court decision?
The issue at the heart of Marbury v. Madison is the power of the judicial branch to interpret the U.S. Constitution. This case was decided a mere sixteen years after the adoption of the Constitution, and the idea that the letter of the law and the actual powers of government was still in question. The Articles of Confederation had failed as a government, and the ideas of separation of powers and checks and balances were just that- ideas.
Marbury v. Madison established the principle of judicial review; the idea that the job of interpreting the Constitution rested solely on the Supreme Court and the judicial branch. This idea was, of course, present in the Constitution, but Marbury v. Madision was the first time that power was executed. The power of judicial review is paramount in the balance of power in our government, and it manifested itself through this case.