Which court established judicial review?

The Supreme Court established the power of judicial review in Marbury v. Madison (1803), one of the most important and influential rulings in American legal history. The case arose from political turmoil at the end of John Adams's presidency. After losing the election of 1800 to Thomas Jefferson, Adams used his final weeks in office to appoint dozens of Federalist judges and justices of the peace, including William Marbury. Adams's Secretary of State, John Marshall, who had also just been confirmed as Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, failed to deliver some of the commissions before leaving office.

When Jefferson took office, his new Secretary of State, James Madison, refused to deliver Marbury's commission. Marbury sued directly in the Supreme Court, asking the Court to issue a writ of mandamus ordering Madison to deliver the commission. The lawsuit was brought under a provision of the Judiciary Act of 1789 that gave the Supreme Court original jurisdiction over such writs.

Chief Justice Marshall faced a political dilemma. If the Court ordered Madison to deliver the commission, the Jefferson administration was likely to ignore it, weakening the Court's authority. If the Court did nothing, it would appear to surrender to political pressure. Marshall's solution was a stroke of political and legal genius. He held that Marbury was indeed entitled to his commission and that Madison had a legal duty to deliver it.

But Marshall then ruled that the Court could not actually order Madison to do so, because the section of the Judiciary Act giving the Supreme Court original jurisdiction over mandamus writs was unconstitutional. The Constitution, Marshall argued, set out the Supreme Court's original jurisdiction in Article III, and Congress could not expand it by statute.

By striking down a small portion of the Judiciary Act, Marshall established the principle that federal courts have the authority to review and invalidate acts of Congress that conflict with the Constitution. He explained that a law repugnant to the Constitution is void, and that courts must apply the Constitution as the supreme law.

The Marbury ruling did not provoke an immediate political crisis because the result favored the Jefferson administration in the short term. Over the next two centuries, judicial review became a defining feature of American government.