Marshall Cases

Marbury vs. Madison (1803)

gave the Court the power of judicial review. First overturning of a law (Judiciary Act of 1789)

Cohens vs. Virginia (1821)

states were no longer soverign in all respects since they had ratified the Constitution. State courts must submit to federal jurisdiction

McCullough vs. Maryland (1819)

upheld the right of Congress to charter a national bank and be free from taxation by a state, thus putting into national law the doctrine of implied powers. Maryland's lawyers argued that Congress did not have the right to charter a national bank. "The power to tax involves the power to destroy", responded Marshall, upholding the bank's right to exist and be free from taxes

Gibbons vs. Odgen (1824)

gave the national government undisputed control over interstate commerce by ruling invalid a steamboat monopoly chartered by New York. This freed internal transportation from state restraint

Fletcher vs. Peck (1810)

established the principle that state law was invalid when in conflict with the Constitution and that contracts must be upheld. A land grant given by the Georgia legislature to speculators was revoked by a later legislature. Marshall ruled for the speculators, giving federal protection to purchasers of state-owned lands

Dartmouth College vs. Woodward (1819)

by forbidding the state legislature to alter the college charter, Marshall established the principle that charters were contracts were contracts which could not be impaired

Johnson vs. McIntosh (1823)

offered a preliminary defenition of the place of Indians within the nation. The tribes had a basic right to tribal lands that preceded all other American law. Citizens could not buy or take land from tribes; only the federal government - the supreme authority - could do that

Worcester vs. Georgia

invalidated Georgia laws that attempted to regulate access by U.S. citizens to Cherokee country. As Marshall explains, the tribes were "sovereign entities". In defending the power of the federal government, Marshall affirmed, and indeed expanded, the rights of tribes to remain free from the authority of the states.