How and when was the concept of judicial review created in the United States? What does it mean?
How and when was the concept of judicial review created in the United States? What does it mean?
The essential function and importance of the idea of judicial review is that it allows the judiciary to judge upon whether or not the actions and measures of the executive and legislative branches of government are Constitutional. This ability gives the judiciary an added source of power to actively decide on actions of the government, and then seek to enforce potential fixes to any Constitutional malfeasance. As the idea and practice of judicial review is not an expressed power of the federal government or the judiciary in particular, it took a landmark Supreme Court case, Marbury v Madison, in 1803, to set the precedent for the way that the Supreme Court could act in protecting the Constitution.
The Marbury v. Madison case held a very important provision in chief justice Marshall’s opinion on the case which asserted the role of the judiciary in preserving the values of the Constitution. In this case, a dispute of the actions of Congress came into judgment, and were overturned (specifically in the appointment of Marbury’s appointment as Justice of the Peace of the District of Columbia). Marshall’s opinion stated that “it is emphatically the province and duty of the Judicial department to say what the law is.” This is a short summation of the grounds of judicial review as set by the Marbury v. Madison decision.