John Marshall: Judicial Career and Constitutional Opinions

The Great Chief Justice: John Marshall and the Rule of Law by Charles F. Hobson examines the judicial career of John Marshall, as well as the legal culture that helped to shape his political beliefs and his major constitutional opinions. The author sources much of his information from the formal opinions that Marshall issued during his judicial career. From these writings, Hobson presents Marshall 's views on law and government and provides explanations for what in Marshall 's life influenced those beliefs. Hobson explains that he has examined Marshall 's judicial writings though "the perspective of the common law tradition in which [Marshall] was bred" (Hobson xiii) in order to better understand his intentions. He states that Marshall carefully read legal texts with great attention to detail in an attempt to determine the intent of the writer. Similarly, Hobson tries to gain a better understanding of Marshall 's principles through his writings. Three significant life experiences helped to build Marshall 's political principles and had an influence over his judicial career: the

Madison is the first of many important opinions issued by Marshall. It established a precedent for the use of "judicial review," the Supreme Court 's power to determine whether a law is constitutional or unconstitutional. While the idea of judicial review was not new at the time, the decision in Marbury helped to establish the role of the judiciary and spelled out the role of the Supreme Court within the structure of the U.S. government. At the same time, Marshall 's opinion appeared impartial to the political aspects of the case in an attempt to demonstrate that politics should not interfere with legal decisions. His thought in relation to understanding the case comes from his belief in the federal judiciary needing to protect citizens from overreaching state governments, which can be done by declaring laws enacted by state governments