El transfondo político y jurídico de la «Marbury v. Madison Decision»

Abstract

John Marshall became president of the Supreme Court at an especially delicate political moment, due to the heated confrontation between the Federalists and the republicans during the final years of the closing decade to the 18th century, which became especially virulent in the last two years of John Adams Presidency. When one side did something, the others would react by doing something contrary else, with no line of continuity. This seriously impacted the federal judiciary, especially after the downfall of the Federalist administration at the November 1800 elections. The attempts of the outgoing president to control the federal judiciary even after losing power led Adams, in the final weeks of his term in office, to get Congress to enact an act for reforming judicial power. Apart from a few positive aspects, this act responded to clearly partisan designs. It was followed by the appointment of a number of faithful Federalists to judicial posts recently created by the Act. The reaction of the Republicans after Jefferson came to power (March 1801) was no less virulent and biased. The Act was not only repealed, in a manner that was not clearly constitutional, but Jefferson also launched an out-and-out attack on the independence of the judiciary, with John Marshall at the receiving end, instrumented through constitutional impeachment proceedings. The famous decision laid down in 1803 in the Marbury vs Madison case must be situated in this background and cannot be understood without taking into account the political events surrounding it.