John Marshall Quotes
To what purpose are powers limited, and to what purpose is that limitation committed to writing; if those limits may, at any time, be passed by those intended to be restrained? If the Constitution is alterable when the legislature shall please to alter it, ... then written constitutions are absurd attempts, on the part of the people, to limit a power in its nature illimitable
John Marshall, 1755-1835, Chief Justice of the U. S. Supreme Court, U. S. Congressman (Federalist, VA), U. S. Secretary of War, U. S. Secretary of State, Marbury v. Madison, 1803
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Marshall is famous for, as Chief Justice, establishing the principle that the Judiciary can override Congress and the Executive in determining Constitutionality. However, as this quotation illustrates this principle had been discussed in open debate on the ratification of the Constitution. It was not simply a grab for power by a Chief justice; he uttered this quotation long before he ever suspected he would be a judge but actually spent much of his career in the executive and legislative branch of government.
One of the conundrums of our constitutional system is who has the last word as to what the Constitution means. Essentially it is the judicial branch headed by the Supreme Court. But there are those who believe that the current popular majority should have a say in what is or is not constitutional. If so the legislative branch should have the last word. Still others say that the President is the only person elected by ALL the people, so his opinion most reflects the will of the public. And then there are most who argue that the Constitutional system was created just to avoid the power of currently popular majorities, and the courts should decide based on the Constitution itself. So the statement has very little meaning except that Phillips thinks that the courts have too much power. Whoever gets to decide what is or is not Constitutional will be accused of being “over” the Constitution by those who don’t like the decisions. In our system, that is the courts.
The view that the Supreme Court was the final arbiter of constitutional controversies was not held in early America.
Vidal, a staunch liberal held this view along with many ultra conservatives end extreme liberals. The constitution requires the Congress to declare war, but they have not done so for any of the wars since WWII. The President assumed the war power. And the only coherent budgets began.
Jefferson and many others thought the original drafting of the Constitution was deficient in not explicitly protecting rights from the government. See {586024}. When it came time for ratification, it was clear that ratification would not take place unless that was remedied and the Bill of Rights made the ratification possible by satisfying many critics of whom Jefferson was but one. Note that the protection sought was from the President and the Congress.
John Marshall was an American politician and lawyer who served as the fourth Chief Justice of the United States from 1801 to 1835. Marshall remains the longest-serving chief justice and fourth-longest serving justice in Supreme Court history, and he is widely regarded as one of the most influential justices to ever sit on the Supreme Court. Prior to joining the Supreme Court (and for one month simultaneous to his tenure as Chief Justice), Marshall served as the United States Secretary of State under President John Adams.
