In this intricate system, the role of the Supreme Court had not been defined. The President was given the veto power to restrain Congress and the authority to appoint members of the Supreme Court with the advice and consent of the Senate. The Constitution gave Congress the power to impeach and remove officials, including judges or the President himself. When James Madison, Alexander Hamilton, and John Jay wrote a defense of the Constitution in The Federalist, they explained their judgment that a strong national government must have built-in restraints: “You must first enable government to control the governed and in the next place oblige it to control itself.” The writers of the Constitution had given the executive and legislative branches powers that would limit each other as well as the judiciary branch. Marshall, however, believed that the Supreme Court should have a role equal to those of the other two branches of government. Nothing stated in the Constitution gave the Court this specific power. “A Law repugnant to the Constitution is void.” With these words written by Chief Justice Marshall, the Supreme Court for the first time declared unconstitutional a law passed by Congress and signed by the President. Madison, Chief Justice John Marshall established the principle of judicial review, an important addition to the system of “checks and balances” created to prevent any one branch of the Federal Government from becoming too powerful. In 1801, outgoing President John Adams had issued William Marbury a commission as justice of the peace - but the new Secretary of State, James Madison, refused to deliver it.
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