Facts:
In the final days of his presidency, outgoing President John Adams appointed a significant number of justices and judges of the peace through the Judiciary Act of 1801. William Marbury was one of the individuals who received a midnight appointment as a justice of the peace. District of Columbia. However, he was not commissioned before the new president, Thomas Jefferson, took office. The new Secretary of State, James Madison, refused to deliver Marbury's commission.
Legal action:
William Marbury, along with many others who were similarly affected, petitioned the Supreme Court for a writ of mandate, a court order that would compel Secretary of State Madison to deliver the commission. Marbury invoked Section 13 of the Judiciary Act of 1789, which empowered the Supreme Court to issue such writs.
Issue:
Marbury v. The central issue in Madison was whether the Supreme Court had the power to issue writs pursuant to the Judiciary Act of 1789 and, if so, whether it could use that power to compel the delivery of Marbury's commission.
Decision:
In a unanimous decision written by Chief Justice John Marshall, the Supreme Court held that Marbury had a right to his commission under the Judiciary Act of 1801 and that the delivery of that commission was a ministerial duty of the executive branch. However, the court also declared that the portion of the Judiciary Act of 1789 that empowered the Supreme Court to issue writs of mandate was unconstitutional. The Court's reasoning was that the Constitution did not authorize Congress to extend the Court's original jurisdiction in the way that the Judiciary Act sought to do.
