Unconstitutional Law Quotes
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.
Commenting on a Supreme Court decision striking down a Lakewood, Ohio ordinance allowing local politicians to control newsracks placed on municipal sidewalks:
The questioned policy was that of the NSA collecting metadata on virtually all phone and other electronic communications made in or into the United States. The issue of the unconstitutionality was not then settled, with some federal courts and bodies saying Yes and other saying No.
