A User's Guide to U.S. Supreme Court Cases that Shaped History

After you listen to this episode of A User's Guide to Democracy on Unknown History, quiz yourself on your knowledge of landmark Supreme Court cases for a chance to win a copy of the book! (Enter by Sunday, October 4, 2020.)

Today, we're all about opinions—not yours, not mine, but the U.S. Supreme Court's. We've got a whole chapter in our book of landmark Supreme Court decisions and the ramifications. But we're just going to give you the nuts and bolts of a scant few today.

Marbury v. Madison established judicial review

The Supreme Court case that defined what the supreme court can do was Marbury v. Madison, decided in 1803. If you take one thing away today, it's that this decision established what's called "judicial review," which means that it's the Supreme Court's job to interpret the constitution and decide what is and what is not constitutional.

Alright, let's set the scene.

1800. John Adams, second president, lover of hard cider, loses the 1800 election to Thomas Jefferson. And Adams is in what we call the lame-duck presidency, that time between when a new president is elected and when they actually take office. And it's a big chunk of time.

John Adams doesn't just sit there with his head in his hands. He and his federalist Congress go crazy trying to pack all the courts in the United States with federalist judges.

Jefferson doesn't move into the presidency until March 4, 1801. So, John Adams doesn't just sit there with his head in his hands, wondering what went wrong; he gets to work. He and his federalist Congress go crazy trying to pack all the courts in the United States with federalist judges.

They passed the Judiciary Act of 1801, based on the Judiciary Act of 1789, which gave them the power to do this. By the time Jefferson is sworn in, they'd appointed 16 Circuit Court judges and 42 justices of the peace. These were called the "midnight judges." These judges were sent commissions, which are letters confirming their new post, and not all of them got delivered in time. One justice to be, William Marbury, waited and waited for his commission to arrive and it never did.

And oh, how Marbury wanted that little commission. And he never got it.

So Marbury petitioned to the Supreme Court. He asked for the court to order a writ of mandamus to force Jefferson's Secretary of State, James Madison, to deliver it to him.

So did he get? Well, he should have. Chief Justice John Marshall ruled that, yes, it was illegal for Madison to not deliver Marbury his...

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