Editing Marbury v. Madison (section)

==Legacy==
''Marbury v. Madison'' is regarded as the single most important decision in American constitutional law.{{sfnp|Chemerinsky|2019|loc=§ 2.2.1, p. 39}}{{sfnp|Chemerinsky|2021|loc=§&nbsp;1.3, p. 12}}  It established U.S. federal judges' authority to review the constitutionality of Congress's legislative acts,{{sfnp|Chemerinsky|2019|loc=§ 2.2.1, p. 39}} and to this day the Supreme Court's power to review the constitutionality of American laws at both the federal and state level "is generally rested upon the epic decision of ''Marbury v. Madison''."{{sfnp|Van Alstyne|1969|p=1}}

[[File:Grand Jury Subpoena Duces Tecum to Richard M. Nixon to Testify and Bring Documents or Objects Listed, with Attached Schedule of Documents or Objects to be Produced by or on Behalf of Richard M. Nixon - NARA - 7582824 (page 1).jpg|thumb|upright=1.25|The ''[[subpoena duces tecum]]'' (order to bring items as evidence) issued to President [[Richard Nixon]] that was the center of the dispute in the 1974 judicial review case ''[[United States v. Nixon]]''.]]
Although the Court's opinion in ''Marbury'' established the power of judicial review in American federal law, it did not invent or create it. Some 18th-century British jurists had argued that English courts had the power to circumscribe [[Parliament of the United Kingdom|Parliament]].{{sfnp|Cornell|Leonard|2008|p=540}} The idea became widely accepted in Colonial America{{mdash}}especially in Marshall, Jefferson, and Madison's native [[Virginia]]{{mdash}}under the theory that in America only the people were sovereign, not the government, and so the courts should only implement legitimate laws.{{sfnp|Cornell|Leonard|2008|p=540}}{{sfnp|Treanor|2005|p=556}} American courts' "independent power and duty to interpret the law" was well established by the time of the [[Constitutional Convention (United States)|Constitutional Convention]] in 1787,{{sfnp|Paulsen|2003|p=2707}} and Hamilton had defended the concept in ''Federalist No. 78''. In addition, the 1796 Supreme Court case ''[[Hylton v. United States]]'' considered whether a tax on carriages was constitutional, though the Court ruled that the statute in question was in fact constitutional and did not actually exercise the power.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Hylton v. United States, 3 U.S. 171 (1796) |url=https://supreme.justia.com/cases/federal/us/3/171/ |access-date=2023-03-02 |website=Justia Law |language=en}}</ref> Nevertheless, Marshall's opinion in ''Marbury'' was the Supreme Court's first mention of, and exercise of, that power. It made the practice more routine, rather than exceptional, and prepared the way for the Court's opinion in the 1819 case ''[[McCulloch v. Maryland]]'', in which Marshall implied that the Supreme Court was the supreme interpreter of the U.S. Constitution.{{sfnp|Cornell|Leonard|2008|p=542}}

''Marbury'' also established that the power of judicial review covers actions by [[Federal government of the United States#Executive branch|the executive branch]]—the President and his cabinet members. However, American courts' power of judicial review over executive branch actions only extends to matters in which the executive has a legal duty to act or refrain from acting, and does not extend to matters that are entirely within the President's discretion, such as whether to veto a bill or whom to appoint to an office. This power has been the basis of later important Supreme Court decisions. In its 1974 decision ''[[United States v. Nixon]]'', for example, the Supreme Court held that President [[Richard Nixon]] had to comply with a [[subpoena]] to provide tapes of his conversations for use in a criminal trial related to the [[Watergate scandal]], which ultimately led to Nixon's resignation.{{sfnp|Tribe|2000|p=179}}{{sfnp|Chemerinsky|2021|loc=§&nbsp;1.3, p. 14}}

Although it is a potent check on the other branches of the U.S. government, federal courts rarely exercised the power of judicial review in early American history. After deciding ''Marbury'' in 1803, the Supreme Court did not strike down another federal law until 1857, when it struck down the [[Missouri Compromise]] in its now-infamous decision ''[[Dred Scott v. Sandford]]'', a ruling that contributed to the outbreak of the [[American Civil War]].{{sfnp|Chemerinsky|2019|loc=§ 2.2.1, p. 47}}
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