The Relative Power of the Judicial Branch

989 Words4 Pages
Politics The Relative Power of the Judicial Branch 1. “It is emphatically the province and duty of the Judicial Department to say what the law is.” These are the words written on the wall of the Supreme Court building and are a summary of the outcome of the landmark case Marbury v. Madison. In a most simplistic, pithy and straightforward way, this single sentence sums up the Judiciary Branch’s infinite strength and relative weakness at the same time. The Judiciary branch cannot create new law, they cannot lay a path for governmental change, and in a sense of driving change the Judicial Branch has no power whatsoever. But, it is the responsibility to interpret laws that have been previously made and apply their interpretations and applications to the current time. Additionally, while the Judicial System cannot drive change, the other branches that can must first go through the Judicial Branch where they can decide if such change is or is not constitutional. 2. In 1789 Marbury v. Madison was the first case to really decide how much power the courts had. The case began as John Adams tried to appoint a court full of federalist judges as his term ended before he handed the presidency over to Democratic-Republican, Thomas Jefferson. All of the processes did not get completed before Jefferson took office and he had his party put a halt put on the proceedings. There was a court case saying that this was unconstitutional. But the question that remained was what power and authority the court had to rule on this case. This case ultimately decided whether the Supreme Court had the power to decide whether the decisions of the other branches were unconstitutional. The end result of the course was this; Section 13 of the Judiciary Act of 1789 is unconstitutional to the extent it purports to enlarge the original jurisdiction of the Supreme Court beyond that
Open Document