Getting Judicial Review

You may already know Marbury v. Madison as the landmark case that established the Supreme Court's right to rule on constitutional questions. You can probably guess that the case grew out of the kind of partisan gamesmanship that's a staple of Washington. Here's the story.

In 1800, the Federalist Party was sitting pretty, with John Adams in the White House and control of Congress in Federalist hands. But that November, Thomas Jefferson narrowly defeated Adams in the presidential election. To ensure that Federalists controlled the courts, Adams appointed scores of judges just before he left office.

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