I.

Introduction

Marbury v. Madison, landmark court case of 1803 in which the Supreme Court of the United States established its authority to review and invalidate government actions that conflict with the Constitution of the United States. In Marbury, Chief Justice John Marshall, speaking for a unanimous Court, expressed for the first time the concept of judicial review at the federal level. Although the Court’s decision concerned only a minor provision of a federal law, the case is monumentally significant because it was the first time that the Supreme Court declared an act of Congress to be unconstitutional. Equally significant was Marshall’s reasoning in the case.

Today Marbury is generally considered to be the most important early U.S. Supreme Court decision and the leading precedent for the idea that the Court has the power—and the duty—to strike down acts of Congress that violate the Constitution. While central to modern jurisprudence, the case involved a rather technical set of facts and an issue of relatively minor importance.