The weakest co-equal branch - the judiciary - could have been run over roughshod by the passions of the political branches. Our fledgling nation, buoyed by the Constitution’s delicately tense “checks and balances,” may have never gotten off the ground. If Marshall stopped there, Jefferson probably would have told the Supreme Court to pound sand. Just because the new administration didn’t like the hardball politics of the former president, that did not give them legal grounds to undermine valid prior acts. He was Jefferson’s secretary of state, and Chief Justice Marshall wrote that he broke the law by refusing to deliver Adams’ final appointments. If you actually read the case, James Madison - yes, the famous founding father - lost. Thus, its political path was fraught with peril. The Supreme Court had yet to assert itself as a co-equal branch of government. The fight between Adams’ Federalists and Jefferson’s Democratic-Republicans was likely even more consequential than our current battle. But sometimes our ideals and our reality come into conflict. And they are right it absolutely should be. There are plenty of paeans to the idea that the Supreme Court is above politics. Madison.Īs always, our history is instructive. The negative campaigning was brutal, even by today’s standards.Īnd the court appointments controversy was the basis of the famous Supreme Court case Marbury v. Would it surprise you to know that the outgoing president was John Adams? While the former vice president - and electoral victor - was Thomas Jefferson? The immigration and “fake news” laws were the Alien and Sedition Acts. The Senate, controlled by the same party as the outgoing president, quickly confirmed the appointments during the “lame duck” session.
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