Download 07 The Marshall Court

AP/IB American History
Mr. Blackmon
The Marshall Court
I.
II.
III.
John Marshall
A.
Incontestably the greatest Chief Justice in our history, and a man whose influence
on the development of American law and democracy is difficult to overestimate.
B.
Believed in a powerful central government.
C.
Believed that "the business community was the agent of order and progress."
D.
Two Constant Principles
1.
The sanctity of contracts
2.
Supremacy of federal legislation
Sanctity of Contracts
A.
He believed that property must be protected if liberty is to be preserved.
1.
This is not as materialistic as it appears. It was axiomatic among liberal
political theorists that no man could be free who was dependent upon
another for his livelihood. By protecting property, the law protects the
incentive any man has to acquire property and to maintain true liberty.
Those who do not have property can be manipulated by the wealthy or by
demagogues.
2.
On this point, if on few others, Marshall would agree with Thomas
Jefferson.
B.
Contracts must be enforced or there would be chaos.
C.
Sturges v. Crowninshield--Declared a bankruptcy law unconstitutional that was
applied to debts incurred before passage, since debts are contracts.
D.
Dartmouth College v. Woodward--New Hampshire attempted to alter
Dartmouth's charter to make it a public institution; Dartmouth resisted and was
represented by its most distinguished alumnus, Daniel Webster. Marshall ruled
that charters are contracts and cannot be altered except by mutual consent.
Charters must spell out restrictions and conditions in great detail.
1.
This case protects all corporations from alterations in the way in which it
does business. All corporations exist by virtue of a charter granted by the
state. If state's could unilaterally alter that charter at will, corporations
would find it impossible to do business in any rational way.
Supremacy of the Federal Government
A.
Marbury v. Madison 1803
1.
This is the most important Supreme Court decision ever handed down.
2.
Marshall established the principle of judicial review by striking down part
of the Judiciary Act of 1789.
B.
McCulloch v. Maryland 1819
1.
This is the second most important ruling in Supreme Court history
2.
The Maryland legislature placed a tax on the "foreign" Bank of the United
States.
3.
Marshall upholds the constitutionality of the Bank of the United States. In
so doing he gives the classic definition of loose construction: "Let the end
be legitimate, let it be within the scope of the Constitution, and all means
AP/IB American History
The Marshall Court
IV.
Mr. Blackmon
Page 2
which are appropriate, which are plainly adapted to that end, which are not
prohibited, but consist with the letter and spirit of the Constitution, are
constitutional."
4.
Marshall then overturns a state law for the first time, therefore establishing
judicial review over the states (as opposed to federal law, which was
established in Marbury v. Madison): "the power to tax involves the power
to destroy . . . the power to destroy may defeat and render useless the
power to create."
5.
Since the Bank of the United States was the creature of the federal
government, only the federal government could tax it.
C.
Gibbons v. Ogden 1824--Aaron Ogden purchased monopoly steamboat ferry
rights between New Jersey and New York form the state of New York. Thomas
Gibbons set up a ferry in competition.
1.
Marshall ruled that a state may regulate business that begins and ends
within its own borders, but not when the transaction crosses a state line.
He rules in favor of Gibbons.
2.
"The act of Congress is supreme; and the law of the state . . . must yield to
it."
3.
The ruling generated sharp competition and broke monopolies.
4.
The broad definition of interstate trade provided a tool for future
regulation.
D.
Fletcher v. Peck 1810--(Yazoo Land Case) Could the Georgia legislature repeal a
land grant given under suspicious circumstances (which is a generous description
of the situation)
1.
Marshall rules that a land grant is a contract and therefore cannot be
voided regardless of the corruption involved in making the contract.
2.
First time a state law is voided because it conflicted with a provision of the
Constitution
E.
Cohens v. Virginia 1821--States' rightists insisted that the federal government, of
which the Supreme Court was a branch, cannot and could not be the judge of its
own powers. This is an exact replication of Jefferson's argument in the Kentucky
Resolutions.
1.
Marshall upholds the Judiciary Act of 1789 allowing appeals from state
courts to federal courts: the states were no longer sovereign in all
respects, having given up part of their sovereignty upon ratification of the
Constitution. State courts must therefore submit to federal jurisdiction..
2.
Marshall explicitly rejects Jefferson's interpretation of the Constitution.
Marshall, more than any other single man, made the Judiciary a vital part of our
government.