May it please the court-
John Marshall laid the foundation for the Supreme Court’s equal status among the three branches. Every school kid learns about Marshall’s most impactful case; Marbury v. Madison. The result was judicial review.
A big-government Federalist, he believed the federal government enjoyed board authority to carry out its business. The Necessary and Proper clause and the Commerce clause are vague enough to use as tools for centralizing power in the federal government and Marshall used those tools well.
While his politics and his jurisprudence can be debated to their different degrees of statism, Marshall’s historic significance leaves little room for disagreement. On a PBS special called The Supreme Court, Professor Joe Kobylka explained Marshall’s lasting significance this way-
“We know the president can veto legislation because Article One, Section Seven says he can. We know the Supreme Court can strike down legislation as unconstitutional because John Marshall said it could.”
I think we can agree, that’s incredibly significant.
John Adams considered nominating Marshall as Chief Justice of the US Supreme Court as his crowning achievement in office… Adams also gave us the Alien and Sedition Acts.
