Arguably the Most Important Judicial Figure in American History

1755-1835

John Marshall was arguably the most important judicial figure in American history. As the chief justice on the United States Supreme Court, serving from 1801-1835, he helped move the Court from the fringes of power to the epicenter of constitutional government. During his career he participated in over 1000 decisions, and wrote over 519 of them. He wrote with lucidity, persuasiveness, and vigor; thereby, giving his opinions a quality of reasoned inevitability. Prior to Marshall, each judge wrote his own opinion on major cases. Marshall persuaded his colleagues that their decisions would have more effectiveness, a clearer voice, if the Supreme Court rendered one opinion.

Specifically, the framers of the Constitution did not envision the Court as equal to the legislative and executive branch. Under Marshall this third branch of government developed equal power to the executive and legislative branch. In great opinions in cases such as Marbury v. Madison and McCulloch v. Maryland he firmly established the Court as a major arbiter of power. 

John Marshall was a Federalist who sought through judicial decisions to support the emerging American market economy; that is, he recognized that for American business to prosper he must eliminate state barriers to trade. He waged a lifelong struggle against champions of “states-rights’ constitutional theory, a rivalry that embodied a personal and ideological rivalry with Thomas Jefferson. Jefferson in exasperation once noted that Marshall was the only man who he is hated! Marshall recognized that a strong national government was necessary to overcome the weaknesses created by the earlier association of states under the Articles of Confederation.

The first of Marshall’s great cases in more than 30 years of service was Marbury v Madison (1803), which established the Supreme Court’s right to state and expand constitutional law in disregard to federal statutes that it found in conflict with the Constitution. The Court confirmed to itself its most controversial power, the function of judicial review, by rendering this decision. In subsequent major decisions Cohens v. Virginia (1921) and Martin v. Hunt (1816) Marshall applied to concept of judicial review to the decisions of the state courts.

In McCulloch v. Maryland (1819), he supported the right of Congress to create the Bank of the United States, providing broad support for the implied rather than just specific powers of Congress. Therefore, Congress could pass enact broad legislation that was not specifically listed under its rights in the constitution. This concept of elasticity of power has been essential in keeping the Constitution a viable document over the centuries, providing the power to implement necessary reforms.

In Dartmouth College v Woodward (1819) the Court established the inviolability of state’s contracts. In Gibbons v. Ogden (1824) established the inviolability of a state’s contracts.

Two hundred years after his appointment as chief justice of the U.S. Supreme Court, John Marshall is one of the most universally admired men in American history. That is, through his judicial decisions, he implanted the concept that Law—no less than war, executive leadership and political representation—is central to the life of a democratic republic.