Marbury V. Madison: The Origins and Legacy of Judicial Review

By William Edward Nelson

Book Overview

We take for granted today the tremendous power of the Supreme Court to interpret our laws and overrule any found in conflict with the Constitution. Yet our nation was a quarter-century old before that power of "judicial review" was fully articulated by the Court itself in Marbury v. Madison (1803). William Nelson's concise study of that landmark case provides an insightful and readable guide for students and general readers alike. Book jacket.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0700610626
• ISBN13: 9780700610624
• Release Date: November 2000
• Publisher: University Press of Kansas
• Length: 154 Pages
• Weight: 0.50 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.5" x 5.5" x 8.4"

Customer Reviews

Activist Judges? I give you an activist judge!

So the founding fathers more or less set up a judiciary for some purpose, likely similar to the British courts with which they were accustomed, and maybe laws would be struck down (John Jay had done this previously). So what's all this talk about Marbury v. Madison? Why should we care who Chief John Marshall was? This short book (125 pages) does an excellent job of answering these two vital questions. Marshall was a man with a powerful personality and great intelligence that focused the power of the judiciary and made it, through his own will alone it seems, into an equal arm of government. The author explores the historical undertones that brought the actually action to the court (as well as the sister actions), explores what made this decisions so different in form and function to all previous decisions. He then goes on to review some of the long term aspects within the judiciary as a direct result of this decision and closes by reviewing the impact of Marbury to other jurisdictions (countries).

Important Legal History

Marbury v. Madison is a case that every law student knows and that very few people understand. Although modern legal discourse focuses on cases that decide social issues like racial preferences, abortion, and gay rights, none of these cases are as important as Marbury. The reason for this is simple - - unless Justice Marshall had established that it was the exclusive province of the judiciary to determine the constitutionality of legislation, none of the important social issues would be decided in the courts. They would be decided in the legislature or in the executive.Mr. Nelson does a nice job of tracing the history that gave rise to judicial review and explaining how judicial review has become the primary place where many of our social problems are resolved. I recommend it to anyone who is interested in why 9 people in black robes may be the most powerful people in the United States, even though you rarely see them and most citizens don't know their names.