Why Is Marbury V. Madison: The Most Important Supreme Court?

Marbury v. Madison is one of the most important Supreme Court cases in the history of the United States. This case set many precedents in relation to the way the Supreme Court operates and its function within the three branches of government. In essence, this case established the norm of judicial review, or the practice of the Supreme Court being the deciding voice in whether a law is constitutional, and it caused the relationship between the three branches of government to become a closer one. The original conflict in this case came in the period between the presidencies of John Adams and Thomas Jefferson. The case was split into three distinct questions in regard to whether or not Madison had the obligation to deliver the commissions that had not been delivered by Adams’s Secretary of State: “(1) Has the applicant a right to the commission he demands? (2) If he has a right, and that right has been violated, do the laws of his country afford him a remedy? [and] (3) If they afford him a remedy, is it a mandamus issuing from this court?” (Marbury v. Madison). In other words, the Court must decide if the commissions should be delivered, if there
But the overall implications this decision leaves on the Court itself is much more important than the actual decision regarding the commissions. As part of Justice Marshall’s majority opinion, he stated that “it is emphatically the province and duty of the Judicial Department to say what the law is” (Marbury v. Madison). And, in the case of a disagreement between two laws, Marshall said, “if two laws conflict with each other, the Courts must decide on the operation of each” (Marbury v. Madison). This began the tradition of the Court that is now, for the most part, widely accepted: judicial review. It expanded the role of the Court to include a more tangible check on the other two branches of government, especially the