2.8 - The Judicial Branch

Judicial Review

• Marbury v. Madison (1803): the most significant case in Supreme Court history.
• Facts: on his way out of office in 1801, President John Adams appointed William Marbury as a justice of the peace, but the commission was never delivered. Jefferson's Secretary of State, James Madison, refused to deliver it, and Marbury asked the Supreme Court to order Madison to do so.
• Holding: 4-0, Marbury had a right to his commission, but the Court couldn't order it delivered, because the part of the Judiciary Act of 1789 that let him bring the case straight to the Supreme Court was unconstitutional. It was the first time the Court struck down a federal law.
• Reasoning: Chief Justice John Marshall wrote that "a law repugnant to the constitution is void" and that "It is emphatically the province and duty of the Judicial Department to say what the law is." Since the Constitution is the supreme law, judges have to follow it over an ordinary law that conflicts with it.
• Why it matters: it established judicial review, the Court's main check on Congress and the president. Marshall's reasoning closely follows Hamilton's argument in Federalist No. 78.

• Judicial Review: the power, established by this case, that lets the Supreme Court rule on the constitutionality of laws and actions. The Court can strike down federal laws, executive actions, and state laws that conflict with the Constitution. Notably, judicial review isn't actually mentioned in the Constitution, the Court essentially gave itself this power.

• Federalist No. 78: Hamilton argued for an independent judiciary here, saying judicial review exists to defend limited government by voiding laws that conflict with the Constitution. The Constitution also gives judges lifetime appointments.
• Date: 1788, written by Hamilton (as "Publius") during the ratification debate.
• Least dangerous branch: the judiciary has "no influence over either the sword or the purse" and has "neither FORCE nor WILL, but merely judgment," so it is the weakest branch and the smallest threat to liberty. It depends on the executive to enforce its rulings.
• Judicial review: "The interpretation of the laws is the proper and peculiar province of the courts." Courts have a duty "to declare all acts contrary to the manifest tenor of the Constitution void," which makes them "bulwarks of a limited Constitution against legislative encroachments."
• Life tenure: judges serve during good behavior, so they can rule against the other branches without fear of losing their jobs. Hamilton wrote that "nothing can contribute so much to its firmness and independence as permanency in office."

• How judicial review checks the other branches: examples from the required cases:
• Congress: United States v. Lopez (1995) struck down a federal gun law as beyond the Commerce Clause.
• The president: New York Times Co. v. United States (1971) stopped the Nixon administration from blocking publication of the Pentagon Papers.
• The states: Brown v. Board of Education (1954) struck down state laws segregating public schools, and McCulloch v. Maryland (1819) struck down Maryland's tax on the national bank.

Federal Court Structure and Jurisdiction

• What Article III says:
• Section 1: "The judicial Power of the United States, shall be vested in one supreme Court, and in such inferior Courts as the Congress may from time to time ordain and establish." Judges "hold their Offices during good Behaviour" (life tenure), and their pay can't be cut while they serve.
• Section 2: federal courts hear cases arising under the Constitution, federal laws, and treaties, plus disputes between states. The Supreme Court has original jurisdiction in cases involving ambassadors or a state, and appellate jurisdiction in everything else, "with such Exceptions, and under such Regulations as the Congress shall make."
• What it leaves out: judicial review and the number of justices. Congress sets the size of the Court by law (nine since 1869).

• Jurisdiction: legal authority to hear a case.
• Original Jurisdiction: the court hears the case first and rules on the actual facts.
• Appellate Jurisdiction: the court reviews legal issues from a case already decided elsewhere, like whether the trial was fair or a law is constitutional.

• District Courts: the lowest federal courts, where most federal cases start. Only original jurisdiction.

• Circuit Courts of Appeals: sit above district courts. Only appellate jurisdiction.

The Supreme Court and Caseload Selection

• Thousands of cases are appealed every year, but the Court only hears about 60 to 80, fewer than 1 percent.

• Rule of Four: an informal rule where if four justices want to hear a case, the Court takes it.

• Writ of Certiorari: issued when the Court agrees to hear a case, requesting all related lower court records and signaling publicly that the case is being taken up.

Criteria that make a case likely to be heard

1. A significant constitutional issue is involved.

2. Different lower courts have ruled differently on the same issue.

3. It touches on civil rights or civil liberties.

4. The federal government is the one appealing.

Limits on judicial power

• Justiciable: the issue has to be something a court can actually decide, meaning legal or constitutional, not purely political.

• Standing: to bring a case, you have to show you were actually harmed by the policy in question. The Court won't hear hypothetical cases.

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