Con Law: Marshall Era

Front 1

Marbury V. Madison (1803)
* Marbury was supposed to be commissioned as a Federal Judge after the Circuit Court Act passed under Adams/SOS Marshall; When Jefferson took office he ordered his SOS to stop delivering commissions...Marbuy sued Madison

Back 1

*Marshall as SOS under Adams had a conflict of interest, usually means recusing self from case.

-Textualist opinion; claims that if Congress makes something an exception to appellate J, it moves up to Original J.

-Strange non-textualist conclusion; Court has power of Judicial Review.

Front 2

McCilloch v. Maryland (1819)
*Second Bank of U.S., the states hate it and think it is interfering with local revenue growth, many either forbade or taxed U.S. Bank, here Maryland was taxing it

Back 2

Marshall must assert Federal supremacy here.

Dormant Commerce Clause: Congresses power to requlate commerce is plenary so even if they haven't acted on an area, a state law may be deemed UnCon. if it burdens interstate commerce.
*Here Maryland's tax was offensive in that it evoked the power of the purse, taxation can destroy and state can not be allowed to destroy Bank of U.S.

-Marshall posits the Const. is meant to last through the ages and to be adapted to emergencies.

Front 3

John Marshall: The Babe Ruth of American History

Back 3

Federalist; Distant Cousin/nemisis to Jefferson; started tradition of wearing simple black robes/ no powdered wig. Spent time in Valley Forge during Revolutionary War and this bred in him a hatred for the states.

Front 4

Fletcher v. Peck: Georgia "Yazoo" Land grants case

Back 4

First time the USSC declares a state law UnCon.

-Marshall hesitant to use due process clause of 5th Amend. because unsure it applies to states.

-Instead uses Art 1, Sec 10 as textual hook: Ex post facto laws and the general principle against punishing an innocent act later.

-Contracts clause: Georgia is bound by contracts clause on its own contracts.
*Contracts clause in the C because of controversial debtor relief laws passed by states during post rev. war depression.

Front 5

Dartmouth College Case

Back 5

Holding: State is prohibited from altering charter under contracts clause.

Huge burden of proof: Marshall asks N.H. to prove to him that if the framers had thought of their case they would have drafted diff. language.

Front 6

Sturgis v. Crowninshield
*Another Art. 1, Sec 10 case for Marshall

Back 6

Holding: N.Y. bankruptcy law could not operate retroactively to discharge a debt incurred before bankruptcy law enacted.

Front 7

The Antelope (1825): Ship with slaved belonging to Spain was seized

Back 7

-The death of Natural Law Jurisprudence

-Marshall cannot do anything about slavery so in this case he claims slavery is against natural law

-BUT we don't legislate other countries; and our solid protection of property means property rights trump natural law maxims.

Front 8

George "Corn" Tassels "case"

Back 8

Tassels committed homicide on reservation and state was charging him with murder. Tassels appealled to USSC claiming State couldn't impose laws on reservations as either its own foreign state or in violation of the treaty btw Indians and the Fed.

-Court appeared ready to hear case but Georgia executed him first, this was Georgia's affront to the court asserting they didn't have to listen to it.

Front 9

Worcester v. Georgia (1832): Missionaries on Indian Reservation arrested for failure to get state license first

Back 9

-Marshall claims Georgia didn't have authority over reservations such as this. But Georgia again functionally nullified this Supreme Court assertion.

-Then South Carolina tried to pull the same shit, and if Jackson was to do anything about S.C. he'd have to deal with Georgia. So he just Geogia to quietly make it go away and the missionaries were pardoned.

Front 10

Gibbons v. Ogden: N.J. had granted exclusive license to Ogden for some navigation channel. Gibbons began running his own boat trips under Fed. flag license and shit went down

Back 10

-Est. Navigation is Commerce
-1,2 test; if at least 2 states involved it is AMONG the state and Congress has plenary power.
-State's police power not at issue here because their excercising a "federal" power by req./taxing (in a way) navigation.

Front 11

Wilson v. Black-Bird Creek Marsh-Similar facts to Gibbons with an opposite conclusion. (Marshall clearly allows Delaware to reg.)

Back 11

Powe: There are a couple of ways to look at this case but really the dormant commerce clause is an area Marshall leaves in a decidedly unfinished way.
-Marshall was flirting with congressional exclusivity in Gibbons but he doesn't go there; he may have been afraid of its applicability to a multitude of cases.