John Marshall Analysis

In this in class movie presentation, we viewed a documentary of John Marshall and his power of making the supreme court the powerhouse that it is today. John Marshall is displayed through some of the big supreme court cases such as Marbury verse Madison, McCullough verse Maryland, and Dred Scott verse Stanford. Being the fourth chief justice of the United States, Marshall was known for establishing the courts right to exercise a judicial review. The film did a great job showing the court cases Marshall was involved with in which were encountered by using good information and images and vivid reenactments of those times to get a better understanding of the scene. During the case of Madison verse Marbury, the film showed right before Marshall
swearing in in second cousin Thomas Jefferson whom hated one another and Jefferson using Madison verse Marbury to test Marshall as the new Chief Justice. I learned that Marshall gave important legal documents to his brother to send out for this case, but his brother James never got to them, making it look bad on the Marshall and the court. The film did a good job of giving many details to support the basic facts ultimately showing the government shut down the courts for a full term. Knowing that this happened, left me to feel that the constitution of the United States is not all that we make it to be, and has a lot of flaws and missing information that is needed to run an organized country. Before 1801 when John Marshall was assigned as the Chief justice the judiciary branch was not anything prestigious and noble, and judges would only stay for a short period of time because they would not work with the Constition.
After viewing the film in class, it showed the power of John Marshall. He changed all that was known and stayed with the organization for over 30 years. The film showed Marshall as a powerful man who brought the court system together and created a brotherhood between the judges by living together and wearing all black to emphasize prestige as they are now the interpreters of the Constitution of the United States. Marshall used his power as the Supreme Court Chief Justice to make changes in the United States that he wanted, in which were conflicting with his second cousin, President Thomas Jefferson’s opinion. It was very interesting to learn how Marshall was selected as Chief Justice by John Adams so that Thomas Jefferson would not be able to have a pick for one when he becomes president. Ironically enough, it was Marshall who swore Jefferson in to become the new president. Marshall had taken upon many cases besides Marbury verse Madison in his time as the Chief Justice, in which the movie also portrayed such as Fletcher verse Peck, McCullough verse Maryland, and Dred Scott verse
Stanford. Overall, I really enjoyed how this information was told in a story in which was easy to understand and go along with, and the altering of narrators made it so that you do not get tired of hearing the same person for a prolonged period of time. The reenactments of Marshall swearing in Jefferson and the working of their “copy machine” type really made me feel like I was in the story. The film used a great amount of detail and background stories that made me deeper understand how Marshall came upon the power that he held as the Supreme Court Justice. This was a great film and I think that it a powerful source for knowledge and understanding of this subject.