The Federal Courts and the Judicial Branch

The Federal Courts and the Judicial Branch

Essential Question

• How does the Supreme Court function as the final word on questions of federal law and the Constitution?

Section 1: The Federal Court System

Main Idea

• The Framers created an independent judicial branch as part of the separation of powers of the national government.
• At the federal level, the judicial branch consists of three tiers of courts, each performing a different function.

Reading Focus

• How is jurisdiction determined in the American court system?
• How is the federal court system structured?
• How are federal judges appointed?
• What is the judicial branch's role in the system of checks and balances?

Key Terms

• jurisdiction: The authority to hear and decide a case.
• exclusive jurisdiction: The sole right to hear a case
• concurrent jurisdiction: Cases that fall under both state and federal jurisdiction.
• plaintiff: The person making the legal complaint.
• defendant: The person against whom the complaint is filed.
• original jurisdiction: The court that first hears a case
• appellate jurisdiction: If the case is appealed to a higher court, it then moves to the court that has appellate jurisdiction.
• judicial restraint: The concept that a judge should interpret the Constitution according to the Framers' original intention.
• judicial activism: Holds that judges can adapt the meaning of the Constitution to meet the demands of contemporary realities.
• precedent: Previous court rulings on a given legal question
• senatorial courtesy: A senator from the same state as the nominee and the same political party as the president can block a nomination for virtually any reason.

Judicial Independence

• Judicial independence is a cornerstone of the federal court system.
• A dramatic confrontation in 1805 involved the attempted impeachment of Supreme Court Justice Samuel Chase.
• Chase was a committed Federalist with a habit of speaking out on political issues, leading to questions about his fairness.
• The House of Representatives, controlled by Democratic-Republicans, brought impeachment charges against Chase for judicial misconduct.
• John Randolph led the trial in the Senate but presented an unconvincing case.
• Chase's acquittal was a victory for judicial independence, establishing that judges can only be removed for serious misconduct.

The American Court System

• Judicial independence safeguards the rule of law, ensuring that no person is above the law and all are entitled to equal justice.
• Courts settle disputes according to the law and perform three basic tasks:
  • Determine whether a law has been broken and what penalties can be applied.
  • Decide how to provide relief for those harmed by the actions of another.
  • Determine the meaning of a particular law or of the Constitution itself.
• Before the Constitution, state courts interpreted laws passed by Congress, leading to contradictory decisions.
• The Framers created a federal court system to clarify the situation.
• The Constitution created a dual court system: state courts and a national court system.
• State courts hear the vast majority of cases, with powers flowing from state constitutions and laws.
• The powers of the federal court system flow directly from the U.S. Constitution and federal laws.

Jurisdiction

• Jurisdiction is the authority to hear and decide a case.
• State courts hear matters of state law, while federal courts hear cases involving the Constitution or federal laws.
• Federal courts have exclusive jurisdiction over certain types of cases, depending on the subject matter or the parties involved:
  • Subject Matter:
    • Interpretation or applications of the Constitution, federal laws, or treaties
    • Admiralty and maritime law
  • Parties Involved:
    • The United States or one of its agencies
    • A representative of a foreign country
    • A state government suing another state government, one of its residents, a foreign government, or one of its subjects
    • Citizens from the same state who claim lands in another state
• Concurrent jurisdiction applies when cases involve residents of different states and the amount of money involved exceeds 75,000.
• The plaintiff can file the case in federal or state court.
• The defendant can insist that the case be tried in federal court under certain circumstances.
• The court that first hears a case has original jurisdiction.
• If the case is appealed, it moves to the court with appellate jurisdiction.

Structure of the Federal Court System

• Article III, Section 1, of the Constitution states that the judicial power of the United States shall be vested in one Supreme Court and in such inferior courts as the Congress may from time to time ordain and establish.
• The Framers' brevity was strategic, as the power of federal courts was a matter of debate.
• Providing too many details might have triggered opposition and prevented ratification.
• Congress was left to decide what kinds of courts were needed.

Judiciary Act of 1789

• Congress passed the Judiciary Act of 1789 in its first session.
• This act fleshed out the details of the Supreme Court.
• It proposed a three-tiered structure for the federal courts: district courts, circuit courts, and the Supreme Court.
• The basic three-tiered structure of the Judiciary Act of 1789 has remained intact.
• District Courts
  • District courts are spread throughout the country and serve as the trial courts of the federal system.
  • They have original jurisdiction over nearly all criminal and civil cases heard in the federal system.
    • Criminal cases involve violations of criminal laws.
    • Civil cases involve disputes between private individuals or groups.
  • There are 94 federal judicial districts: 89 in the 50 states and one each in Washington, D.C.; Puerto Rico; Guam; the Virgin Islands; and the Northern Mariana Islands.

Courts of Appeals

• The Judiciary Act of 1789 established circuit courts above the district courts.
• The term circuit referred to the fact that the courts originally had no fixed location.
• Judges would travel through the circuit, going from district to district to hear cases.
• The circuit courts originally had original jurisdiction over some types of federal cases and also heard appeals from district courts.
• The Judiciary Act of 1891 transformed the circuit courts into strictly appellate courts, hence the current name: the courts of appeals.
• Courts of appeals hear appeals from district courts and also from those federal agencies that have rule-making and rule-enforcement powers.
• The United States is currently divided into 12 different circuits.
• Within each circuit is a court of appeals.
• In addition, there is now a Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit.
• This court has nationwide appellate jurisdiction over certain types of cases decided by one of the specialized courts

The Supreme Court

• The U.S. Supreme Court occupies the top tier of the federal court system.
• The Supreme Court is mainly an appellate court.
• Article III, Section 2, of the Constitution lists a few instances in which the Supreme Court has original jurisdiction: Cases affecting Ambassadors, other public Ministers and Consuls, and those in which a State shall be Party.
• The Judiciary Act of 1789 and later acts of Congress formalized details of the Court's organization.
• Originally, the Court had one chief justice and five associate justices.
• Since 1869, the Court has had a chief justice and eight associate justices.
• Congress has also passed legislation that has altered the Court's appellate jurisdiction.
• The Court receives between 7,000 to 8,000 petitions each year.
• The Court chooses which cases it wants to hear.
• The cases usually involve major questions about the meaning of the Constitution or about federal law.
• On average, the Court hears and issues full opinions on about 80 cases a year.

Other Courts

• Congress has created a number of other courts.
• Since the power to create these courts is outlined in Article I of the Constitution, these courts are often referred to as Article I courts.
• The jurisdiction of these courts is limited to certain types of cases specified by Congress.
• Because the jurisdiction of Article I courts is limited, their judges are not subject to the provisions regarding appointment, pay, and term length outlined in Article III.
• In other words, they are not appointed for life, and their pay is not guaranteed from reduction during their terms.

Appointing Federal Judges

• The Constitution gives the president the power to nominate all federal judges, whom the Senate must then approve.
• Presidents typically take four factors into consideration when making nominations: legal expertise, party affiliation, a judge's judicial philosophy, and the approval of the Senate.

Legal Expertise

• Though the Constitution does not require it, most federal judges have been trained lawyers.
• Since 1952, the American Bar Association (ABA) has issued reports on the integrity and professional competence of federal judicial nominees.
• The reports refrain evaluating a nominee's judicial philosophy or party affiliation.
• Presidents, senators, the media, and the public have often used these reports to assess a nominee's legal expertise.

Party Affiliation

• Presidents usually nominate judges with whom they share a party affiliation.
• Not only is it good politics-rewarding one's supporters with judges of like mind-it also satisfies a president's urge to leave a stamp on the nation.
• Judges will serve long after a president has left office.

Judicial Philosophy

• Presidents also want to appoint judges who share their judicial philosophy.
• Definitions of judicial philosophy often come down to where a judge lands on a spectrum with judicial restraint on one end and judicial activism on the other end.
• Judicial restraint is the concept that a judge should interpret the Constitution according to the Framers' original intention.
• According to this view, laws should be overturned only when the violation of the Constitution's original meaning is absolutely clear.
• The concept of judicial activism holds that judges can adapt the meaning of the Constitution to meet the demands of contemporary realities.
• According to this view, the Constitution should be interpreted more broadly, as an evolving document, something that subsequent generations can interpret consistent with changing values and circumstances.

Respect for precedent

• Respect for precedent, or previous court rulings on a given legal question, can limit a judge's ability to interpret laws in innovative ways.
• A judge who respects precedent subscribes to the idea of stare decisis, which means let the decision stand in Latin.
• That is, the judge is likely to rule based on precedent rather than overturn earlier decisions.
• Virtually all judges agree to respect precedent to some degree.
• The question is how much and over which issues.
• Moreover, not all precedents are consistent with one another, and different precedents can be cited to support opposing interpretations of a law.

Opinions of the Senate

• The Senate must approve any nominee to the federal courts.
• For nominations to the federal district courts, the tradition of senatorial courtesy plays a large role.
• According to this tradition, a senator from the same state as the nominee and the same political party as the president can block a nomination for virtually any reason.
• The other senators simply respect his or her opposition to the nomination and refuse to support it.
• For this reason, presidents either consult with senators before making a nomination to the district courts or simply nominate candidates whom senators suggest.
• Senatorial courtesy plays no role in nominations to courts of appeals or to the Supreme Court.
• Those courts hear cases originating in more than one state.
• Giving a single senator veto power over such nominations would unduly restrict the process.
• Still, most presidents consult with senators, particularly those from their own party when making nominations to the courts of appeals and to the Supreme Court.
• It is usually in a president's interest to avoid long, drawn-out confirmation battles in the Senate.
• Presidents know that senators can resort to filibusters and other tactics to block a nomination.
• Then again, sometimes presidents decide that a high-profile battle over a judicial nomination translates into good politics: It can stir up members of the president's party.

Checks and Balances

• The judicial branch plays a key role in the constitutional system of checks and balances.
• It both checks and is checked by the legislative and executive branches.

Judicial Review

• The primary judicial check on the legislative and executive branches is the power of judicial review.
• Judicial review was established in 1803 by Marbury v. Madison.
• Because of Marbury, the Supreme Court has the power to rule on whether laws or executive actions violate the Constitution.

Checks on the Judiciary

• The appointment process involving both the executive and legislative branches is an important check on the judiciary, giving the people a say, through their elected representatives, on who will be their judges.
• Congress has the power to impeach and remove judges from office, but it is not easy.
• The Constitution says that Judges, both of the supreme and inferior courts, shall hold their terms of office during good behavior.
• Article III judges have no set terms and may serve for life.
• The Framers thought that making judgeships permanent would help ensure judicial independence.
• It would free judges from being bullied by other branches of government or by the public.
• Even when it has set term limits for Article I courts, Congress has been careful to make the terms outlast any president's term of office.
• Since the failure to impeach Samuel Chase, it has been understood that political views are not sufficient grounds for removing a judge from office.
• Seven judges have been removed, all for serious misdeeds such as taking bribes.
• The Constitution further protects judicial independence by saying that judges' pay cannot be reduced during their term.
• This helps to protect the judiciary from undue political pressure or influence.
• The amendment power offers another way for Congress and the states to check the judiciary.
• An amendment can make a formerly unconstitutional act constitutional.
• Both impeachment and the amendment power are difficult processes.
• The Framers made them that way to build a strong barrier protecting judicial independence.

Section 2: Lower Federal Courts

Main Idea

• Congress has created a system of lower courts for the federal judicial system.
• Each court has a specific role to play in the judicial branch.

Reading Focus

• What are the roles, jurisdiction, and officers of the federal district courts?
• What are the roles, jurisdiction, and procedures of the federal courts of appeals?
• What are the functions of some of the other federal courts?

Key Terms

• grand juries: panels of citizens to hear evidence of a possible crime and to recommend whether the evidence is sufficient to file criminal charges.
• bankruptcy: a legal process by which persons who cannot pay money they owe others can receive court protection and assistance in settling their financial problems
• magistrate judges: responsible for overseeing some of the early hearings of a criminal trial when routine matters are carried out.
• misdemeanor: minor criminal cases punishable by one year or less of prison time
• public defenders: lawyers provided by the federal courts to defendants who cannot afford to hire one.
• marshals: provide security and police protection at federal courthouses
• appellant: A person who files an appeal
• briefs: written arguments
• sovereign immunity: A general principle that a sovereign nation is immune from being sued unless it agrees to be sued.
• courts-martial: hearings to decide the cases of violation of the Uniform Code of Military Justice.

The Importance of the Lower Federal Courts

• The lower federal courts may not get the attention that the Supreme Court does, but they are equally as important.
• The lower federal courts handle about 99 percent of all federal cases.
• From bankruptcy to taxes, from kidnapping to terrorism, the lower federal courts have literally heard it all.
• In the absence of a Supreme Court ruling to the contrary, the lower federal courts determine what the law is.
• Their rulings set precedents to which other courts refer.
• The lower courts, especially the district courts, have been the scene of some dramatic-and historic-cases, including the treason trials of former vice president Aaron Burr (1807) and the Communist spy trials of Julius and Ethel Rosenberg (1951).

Federal Courts Caseload, 2015

*   Federal Courts of Appeal: 52,698 (12%)
*   Supreme Court: 7,033 (2%)
*   District Courts: 359,105 (86%)

Federal District Courts

• The district courts occupy the lowest tier.
• As the trial courts of the federal system, with original jurisdiction for most federal cases, district courts are the workhorses of the federal court system, handling over 400,000 cases a year.
• There are 94 federal court districts.
• Each judicial district has at least two judges, though some districts have many more.
• The U.S. Judicial District for Southern New York, which includes New York City, is the most active federal court district in the country.
• To handle its large caseload, it has 44 judges, the most of any federal district.

The Jurisdiction of District Courts

• The Constitution explicitly assigns some types of cases to the federal courts, such as those involving residents of different states or the United States and a foreign government.
• Congress has classified a number of offenses as violations of federal law.
• Civil offenses include violations of civil rights statutes and employment laws.
• Criminal offenses range from the destruction of aircraft to making false statements in a legal proceeding to murder.
• All told, district courts handle about 280,000 civil cases and 80,000 criminal cases each year.
• In serious criminal cases, district courts convene panels of citizens known as grand juries to hear evidence of a possible crime and to recommend whether the evidence is sufficient to file criminal charges.
• Grand juries consist of 16 to 23 people.
• Grand juries are not used in civil cases.
• Bankruptcy cases fall under federal jurisdiction as well.
• Bankruptcy is a legal process by which persons who cannot pay money they owe others can receive court protection and assistance in settling their financial problems.
• Each district court includes a separate bankruptcy court with its own judges and procedures that handles only bankruptcy cases.
• The Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of New York has 11 bankruptcy judges.

Court Officials

• Judges are the primary official in any court.
• The judge's main job is to preside over trials.
• He or she makes sure trials follow proper legal procedures to ensure fair outcomes.
• The judge also instructs juries about the matters of law they are to decide.
• In some cases, the participants in a trial may agree not to have a jury.
• In such cases, the judge decides the case.
• District court judges are nominated by the president and must be approved by the Senate.
• As Article III judges, they have no set term and can serve until they die or retire.
• Bankruptcy judges, however, are named by the courts of appeals for the circuit in which the district court is located.
• As Article I judges, bankruptcy judges serve 14-year terms.
• District courts also have officials who are known as magistrate judges.
• These officials are responsible for overseeing some of the early hearings of a criminal trial when routine matters are carried out.
• They may also hear misdemeanor-minor criminal cases punishable by one year or less of prison time and certain civil cases.
• Magistrate judges are appointed by the district court judges to terms of eight years.
• Each district court has a clerk of the court.
• This person performs such nonjudicial jobs as maintaining court records, handling money received in fines and fees, and overseeing the jury recruitment process.

Other Courtroom Officials

• Each judicial district has a number of other officials who are not employees of the court but who are vital to its operations.
• The most prominent of these is the U.S. attorney.
• Each judicial district has one U.S. attorney.
• The U.S. attorney's job is to represent the United States government in federal court.
• When a person is charged with a federal crime, for example, the U.S. attorney, or an assistant, acts as prosecutor.
• That is, he or she tries to win a guilty verdict.
• If the United States is involved in a civil suit, U.S. attorneys represent the government.
• U.S. attorneys oversee an office with numerous assistant U.S. attorneys and other staff.
• U.S. attorneys and their assistants are employees of the U.S. Department of Justice, making them part of the executive branch.
• U.S. attorneys are appointed by the president, subject to Senate approval, and serve a four-year term―though a president has the power to replace them before their term's end.
• In criminal cases, the federal courts provide lawyers to defendants who cannot afford to hire one.
• Such lawyers are known as public defenders.
• Public defenders are appointed by the panel of the judges who make up the court of appeals.
• Each judicial district is also home to an office of the United States Marshals Service.
• Among other duties, U.S. marshals provide security and police protection at federal courthouses.
• Marshals also transport prisoners, help track down and arrest people accused of crimes, and provide protection to witnesses in federal cases.
• The head of each U.S. Marshals office is appointed to a four-year term by the president, with the advice and consent of the Senate.
• These appointees are employees of the Department of Justice.

Federal Courts of Appeals

• The middle tier of the federal court system is made up of the courts of appeals.
• Today there are 13 of these courts.
• Twelve are scattered among the 12 regional circuits into which the country is divided.
• Washington, D.C., is both a judicial district and a circuit.
• In other words, it has a district court and a court of appeals.
• One court of appeals the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit has nationwide jurisdiction to hear certain types of cases.

Purpose of the Courts of Appeals

• The courts of appeals are, as their name suggests, appellate courts.
• They hear cases on appeal from the district courts within their circuit.
• They also hear appeals from various administrative agencies of the federal government.
• Each year, the courts of appeals hear about 55,000 cases.
• The vast majority about three of four are criminal and civil cases.
• In criminal cases, the appeal will be filed by a defendant who was found guilty.
• The federal government cannot appeal a verdict of not guilty.
• In civil cases, either side can appeal.
• Regardless of who files the appeal, few appeals are successful.
• In 2015, for example, fewer than 9 percent of filed cases were successfully appealed.

Appeals Court Procedure

• A person who files an appeal the appellant usually has to show that the original ruling was based on a legal mistake.
• In almost all cases, the court of appeals will overturn a case only if the original court or agency followed an improper procedure.
• Courts of appeals do not retry cases.
• They do not permit new evidence to be introduced or hear testimony from witnesses.
• Instead, they rely on the factual record as established by the trial court.
• Only in rare instances will an appeals court rule that the original court or agency misconstrued or drew a wrong conclusion from the evidence.
• Most appeals are heard by a randomly chosen panel of three circuit judges.
• Usually the panel reviews the trial court record and reads written arguments, or briefs, from both sides in the case.
• In some cases, the court may listen to oral arguments from each side as well.
• When that happens, the government's side of the case is presented by the U.S. attorney who originally tried the case.
• In reaching a decision, the panel of judges is guided both by Supreme Court precedent and precedents set by previous rulings within its own circuit.
• Decisions of one circuit court are not binding on other circuit courts.

After the Ruling

• The ruling of a court of appeals is usually the final word on a particular case.
• In some cases, though, the court might send the case back to the district court for additional hearings.
• If the panel finds in favor of a criminal defendant, the prosecutor may decide to retry the case, though that is rare.
• The case may on occasion get further review from a larger panel of judges.
• This type of review is called an en banc review, and it often involves all the judges of a specific court of appeals.
• In a small number of cases, the ruling of the court of appeals may undergo review by the U.S. Supreme Court.

The Federal Circuit

• In 1982 Congress created the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit.
• This court has nationwide appellate jurisdiction for cases involving certain areas of law, such as international trade, government contracts, patents, and trademarks.
• Appeals come to the court from the federal district courts, from government agencies, and from some specialized federal courts.

Other Federal Courts

• In addition to the district and circuit courts, Congress has created other Article III and Article I courts.
• These courts generally have a very limited jurisdiction to deal only with certain types of cases.

U.S. Court of International Trade

• This court hears cases involving disputes over laws and rules governing international trade.
• Because it is an Article III court, its judges, nominated by the president and approved by the Senate, can serve for life.
• The cases from this court can be appealed to the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit.

U.S. Tax Court

• The U.S. Tax Court hears disputes over federal taxes.
• If a citizen disagrees with a judgment by the Internal Revenue Service, he or she can seek redress in this court.
• Tax court decisions can be appealed in a federal court of appeals.

U.S. Court of Appeals for Veterans Claims

• The Court of Appeals for Veterans Claims hears cases involving disputes over a veteran's benefits, disability payments, or some other matter.
• It is located in Washington, D.C.

U.S. Court of Federal Claims

• To hear cases in which money claims are more than 10,000, Congress established the U.S. Court of Federal Claims, located in Washington, D.C., across from the White House.
• Rulings of this court can be appealed to the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit.

U.S. Court of Appeals for the Armed Forces

• The five judges of this court are civilian, not military, personnel.
• They serve fifteen-year terms.
• As civilians, they are not subject to the military command structure.

National Security Courts

• The Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court was established in 1978. Its job is to review and authorize requests by the government to conduct spying operations on American soil if it determines that the target of the investigation is an agent of a foreign power.
• The court is made up of 11 district court judges appointed by the chief justice of the United States.
• They serve for seven-year terms.
• The Alien Terrorist Removal Court, which Congress created in 1996, reviews requests by the U.S. attorney general to remove from the country an individual suspected of being a terrorist.
• Judges are appointed to this court by the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court and serve five-year terms.

Military Commissions

• President George W. Bush created special military commissions to try these individuals.
• Their legality was challenged in federal court.
• In Hamdan v. Rumsfeld (2006), the Supreme Court struck down the procedures, methods, and powers under which these military commissions operated, forcing Congress and the president to draft new rules.
• These new rules were themselves challenged in later Supreme Court cases.

Washington, D.C., and Territorial Courts

• Congress has authorized the creation of local trial and appellate courts in each of these places to try local cases.
• These courts are distinct from the federal district court and the federal court of appeals in these jurisdictions, which hear federal cases.

Section 3: The Supreme Court

Main Idea

• The Supreme Court is the highest court in the nation and the most important component of the judicial branch.
• It serves as the final word on questions of federal law and the Constitution.

Reading Focus

• What are some of the highlights of Supreme Court history?
• How are Supreme Court justices chosen?
• What are the typical procedures of the Supreme Court?

Key Terms

• writ of certiorari: an order seeking review of the lower court case
• docket: list of cases to be heard
• majority opinion: one that is signed by at least five of the nine members of the Court
• concurring opinions: agree with the overall conclusion in the case but stress some different or additional legal reasoning.
• dissenting opinions: those held by the minority of the justices who do not agree with the ruling in the case.

The Supreme Court: The Final Word

• The nine justices of the U.S. Supreme Court have extraordinary power.
• They have the last word, the final word, about what the Constitution means.
• Alexis de Tocqueville: A more imposing judicial power was never constituted by any people.
• The Constitution is the supreme law of the land, and the authority to interpret it gives the Supreme Court the final say over what is legal and illegal, what can be done and what cannot.
• In a nation in which scarcely any political question arises… which is not resolved, sooner or later, into a judicial question, this power the power of the final word puts the Court's efforts at the very heart of our government.
• It is a power that the Court must strive to exercise for the common good.

Supreme Court Milestones

• Key rulings in Supreme Court history have defined the powers of the federal government and the rights of Americans.

Highlights of Supreme Court History

• The Supreme Court was not always the powerful institution it is today.
• In its early years, it was held in low esteem.
• Over time, however, the Supreme Court gained in prestige and authority.
• Even as it gained in prestige, the Court also underwent political shifts that mirrored slowly and often belatedly the shifts in society at large.
• This process of evolution continues today.

Early Visions

• The Constitution says little about the Supreme Court, leaving even its structure for Congress to define.
• Alexander Hamilton, writing in The Federalist No. 78-83, gave a lengthy explanation of the federal judiciary and the powers of the Supreme Court.
• His writings have become a touchstone for constitutional scholars and Supreme Court justices trying to determine the intent of the Framers.
• Hamilton began by reassuring those suspicious of a newly created federal judiciary that the judicial branch was the weakest of the three departments of power.
• At the same time, Hamilton foresaw the critical role the Supreme Court had to play in providing judicial review of the acts of Congress and the executive branch.

The Marshall Court

• It took a few years after the founding of the new government for the Supreme Court to fulfill Hamilton's vision.
• The change began with the 1801 appointment of John Marshall as chief justice.
• Marshall was a Federalist and as such took an expansive view of the power of both the Supreme Court and the national government in general.
• By the end of his 34 years on the Court, the judiciary had become an equal partner and a full participant in the system of checks and balances.
• In the landmark case Marbury v. Madison (1803), Marshall cleverly negotiated perilous political waters to arrive at a decision that asserted the Court's power of judicial review.
• William Marbury had received a last-minute appointment as justice of the peace by outgoing President John Adams, a Federalist.
• Incoming President Thomas Jefferson, a Democratic-Republican, ordered his Secretary of State James Madison not to deliver Marbury's commission.
• Marbury sued under provisions of the Judiciary Act of 1789.
• Marshall's decision denied Marbury's suit, giving a victory to Jefferson.
• But in doing so, Marshall had also declared part of the Judiciary Act of 1789 unconstitutional.
• In other words, Marshall had asserted the Court's right to review and strike down acts of the legislature.
• Other key Marshall Court decisions helped shape the basic structure of the federal government and the economy.
• For example, in McCulloch v. Maryland (1819), the Court's decision made the necessary and proper clause a powerful mechanism to expand the implied powers of Congress.
• Gibbons v. Ogden (1824) helped assert the federal government's power to regulate interstate commerce.
• The Marshall Court also upheld the contracts clause (Article I, Section 10), laying the legal groundwork for the rapid growth of the nation's economy.

Dred Scott

• Democrats dominated the presidency and the Senate for much of the first half of the 1800s.
• Not surprisingly, the Supreme Court under Chief Justice Roger Taney began to reflect that party's concern for states' rights and protection of slavery.
• The Taney Court's most famous decision came in Dred Scott v. Sandford (1857).
• Scott, an enslaved African American, sued for his freedom.
• Scott's slaveholder had taken him and his wife to live in the free state of Illinois and the free territory of Wisconsin, where Congress had outlawed slavery by the Missouri Compromise of 1820.
• Scott argued that because he and his