Marbury V. Madison and Judicial Review

by Robert Lowry Clinton

Book Overview

Few Supreme Court decisions are as well known or loom as large in our nation's history as Marbury v. Madison. The 1803 decision is widely viewed as having established the doctrine of judicial review, which permits the Court to overturn acts of Congress that violate the Constitution; moreover, such judicial decisions are final, not subject to further appeal.

Robert Clinton contends that few decisions have been more misunderstood, or...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0700605177
• ISBN13: 9780700605170
• Release Date: September 1989
• Publisher: University Press of Kansas
• Length: 344 Pages
• Weight: 1.05 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.8" x 5.9" x 9.0"

Customer Reviews

Modern Judicial Review?

Clinton's study of the origins of judicial review is very interesting despite some major weaknesses. His attempt to understand what the Framers of the Constitution believed judicial review to be would be much stronger with more detail to the controversies raging within states just after ratification about judicial review. This is because he depends heavily upon his assertion that Marbury was consistent with the generally understood meaning of judicial review that the Framers shared. If there was no generally understood meaning about judicial review, then his hypothesis suffers a major blow.