Summary of Major Supreme Court Cases

Marbury v. Madison

In the presidential race of 1800, former President John Adams was swiftly defeated by

Thomas Jefferson. John Adams did not take his defeat with grace, however, he set out fill the

governmental seats of the country with Federalists. Because a president does not assume an

office until the beginning of the year after the previous election, John Adams had time to carry out his plot against Thomas Jefferson. John Adams first appointed John Marshall to be chief

justice during the start of the next year. Before leaving, John Adams chose William Marbury as federal justice of the peace. When President Jefferson assumed office with James Madison, the secretary of state, Marbury was not officially accepted into his post. Marbury demanded that Thomas Jefferson give him his due commission, along with three others, Jefferson instructed the Secretary of state to deny the commissions. Filled with rage, Marbury asked the Supreme Court to execute a court order that pointed an official to his or her duties, or a “writ of mandamus”.

The final decision of the court was that a “writ of mandamus” could not be applied to Marbury. Chief Justice John Marshall saw this an opportunity to prevent unconstitutional laws

from affecting the elected officials. He created the law in Article III, Section 2, which gives the supreme court the power to declare a law unconstitutional, also called judicial review.

McCullough v. Maryland

In the 1810’s a Second Bank of the United States was established, to the dismay of many states, including most prominently, Maryland. The banks were unregulated and pursued “unorthodox” such as establishing a new type of currency that was not officially declared by the federal government. Banks located near the Second Bank did all they could to harm the Second Bank. Maryland responded by taxing all banks that were not “charted by legislature”.

A cashier of the Baltimore bank, James McCullough refused to pay the tax. When Maryland court then fined him for a sum of money for not paying the tax, McCullough appealed to the Supreme Court.

Chief Justice and the rest of the Supreme Court members decided unanimously in favor of McCullough and the federal banks. The Supreme Court decided that the federal constitution had priority have over the states. Chief Marshall ended on a note, saying that the state of Maryland was not eligible to tax an official federal bureau set up by the government.