What does judicial review mean?
Answer
The power of courts to decide if laws are constitutional
Explanation
Judicial review is the power of federal courts, ultimately the Supreme Court, to decide whether federal and state laws and executive actions comply with the Constitution and to strike down those that do not. The Constitution does not mention judicial review by name, but Chief Justice John Marshall's unanimous opinion in Marbury v. Madison in 1803 established it as part of the judicial power vested in the courts by Article III. Marshall reasoned that it is emphatically the province and duty of the judicial department to say what the law is, that the Constitution is the supreme law, and that any ordinary statute conflicting with it must therefore yield. The same logic applies to state laws under Article VI's Supremacy Clause. Alexander Hamilton had defended a similar view in Federalist No. 78 in 1788, arguing that the Constitution was higher law and that an act of Congress contrary to it must be void.
Judicial review has produced some of the most consequential rulings in American history. Dred Scott v. Sandford in 1857 struck down the Missouri Compromise and helped trigger the Civil War. Lochner v. New York in 1905 struck down a state labor law in the name of liberty of contract. West Coast Hotel v. Parrish in 1937 reversed that direction during the New Deal. Brown v. Board of Education in 1954 struck down racial segregation in public schools. Mapp v. Ohio in 1961 applied the exclusionary rule to the states. Roe v. Wade in 1973, overruled by Dobbs in 2022, reshaped abortion law. Obergefell v. Hodges in 2015 required states to license same-sex marriages. Bruen in 2022 struck down a New York concealed-carry law on Second Amendment grounds.
Judicial review extends to federal executive actions as well, including United States v. Nixon in 1974, which forced President Nixon to turn over the Watergate tapes. The power is not unlimited. Courts decide only actual cases and controversies brought by parties with standing. They typically defer to the political branches on most questions and intervene only where a constitutional rule is at stake. Congress can sometimes respond by amending statutes, narrowing court jurisdiction, or initiating a constitutional amendment, as it did with the Sixteenth Amendment after a court struck down the income tax in 1895.
Why this matters for your test
Recognizing judicial review explains why a Supreme Court decision can reshape national policy on schools, voting, guns, abortion, or campaign finance. It is the reason a single court case can do what years of legislation could not, and the reason judicial nominations to the Supreme Court provoke such intense political battles.
Source: USCIS 128 Civics Questions (2025)
