ipl-logo

Chief Justice John Marshall: The Balance Of Power In The United States

504 Words3 Pages

The founding father’s idea when they created the Constitution was to prevent a centralized government. As expressed by James Madison in Federalist No. 51, they believe that the power surrendered by people would be divided between the federal and state governments, creating balance of power that would enable both governments to control each other. Over time, the balance of power between the federal and state governments has shifted in favor of the federal government and this has taken place with the help of the Constitution and by enactments of Congress. The role that Chief Justice John Marshall played in defining the power of the federal and state governments during the early 19th century is important to mention because he shaped the nation. …show more content…

The founding father's purpose for the Senate was to maintain the balance of power between the Federal and State governments. A third example that expanded federal power happened when the Bill of Rights was incorporated into the 14th Amendment. These extended protections enshrined under the Bill of Rights onto states, preventing any legislation being enacted by the states which would interfere with these ‘fundamental’ protections. The most recent example of this incorporation can be seen in McDonald v Chicago in 2010. The Supreme Court ruled that the Second Amendment to the Constitution, which guarantees “the right of the people to keep and bear Arms,” applies to state and local governments as well as to the federal government. In my opinion, the change in balance in favor of the federal government is positive. The Constitution was written in a time where most people didn’t travel as we do today and they will mostly settle in one state for their entire lives. Today, people lives and moves over all 50 states and having each state acting like a separate nation, completely different than the rest regarding laws, would not be

Show More
Related
364 Words | 2 Pages

From the Constitution’s ratification in 1787 through the 1850s, many American historians shared the consensus that the founding fathers had designed the Constitution the way they did because they were trying to protect the citizens and their rights. James Kent was one very prominent historian among this group. In his book, Commentaries on American Law (1826), he stated “THE government of the United States was erected by the free voice and joint will of the people of America, for their common defence [defense] and general welfare...and it is justly deemed the guardian of our best rights, the source of our highest civil and political duties, and the sure means of national greatness.” (Kent) Essentially, James Kent was trying to convey the point

Read More
729 Words | 3 Pages

The United States of America between the time period of 1800-1835 were creating the first modern democracy. They had a separation of powers by creating a Legislative, Executive, and Judiciary Branch. The Legislative branch being the the Senate and House of Representatives, the Executive branch being the President and his advisors, and the Judiciary branch being the Supreme court. The Supreme Court informed and validated all the laws. In the end, the Supreme Court in many of their cases like Gibbons v. Ogden, McCulloch v. Maryland, Marbury v. Madison, and Cohens v Virginia made decisions that sought to assert federal power over state laws and the primacy of the judiciary in determining the meaning of the constitution.

Read More
484 Words | 2 Pages

The Court called the "Necessary and Proper" clause of the Constitution, which allowed the national government to pass laws not named in the Constitution's list of express powers, gave those laws appropriately encouraged the express powers of Congress under the Constitution(history.org). I agree with the expansion of the size and scope of the power of the national government. I think the McCulloch v. Maryland which expanded the power of the national government. The government improved a lot over the years with all the cases under John Marshall control. This case described the federal power and arranged the foundation for economic growth in very basic ways.

Read More
1159 Words | 5 Pages

DBQ Essay The United States Constitution is a document that or founding fathers made in order to replace the failing Articles of Confederation (A of C). Under the Constitution, the current government and states don’t have the problems they faced when the A of C was in action. The Constitution was created in 1788, and held an idea that the whole nation was nervous about. This idea was a strong national government, and the Federalist assured the people that this new government would work. The framers of the Constitution decided to give more power to the Federal government rather than the state governments because the A of C had many problems, there was a need for the layout of new government, rights, and laws, and there was a need for the Federal

Read More
1511 Words | 7 Pages

The federal government does not have full, complete power of the government, due to the fact the federal government has to power to tax, regulate commerce, and put laws into place if and only if laws are so called “necessary and proper.” Another thing was for each branch of government to have their own separation of powers and check and balance other branches of government. Either though, the Federalists and Anti-Federalists did not agree on ideas, the Constitution is a document of the general compromise between the two political parties. The weakness of the Articles of the Confederation was resolved through the compromise of the Federalists and Anti-federalists political

Read More
882 Words | 4 Pages

“The accumulation of all powers… in the same hands, whether one, a few, or many… may be justly pronounced the very definition of tyranny. ”-James Madison. Fifty-five delegates, from the thirteen states, met in Philadelphia in May of 1787 to discuss and revise the Articles of Confederation. The chief executive and the representatives worked to create a frame for what is now our Constitution. The Constitution guarded against tyranny in four ways; Federalism that creates a State and Federal government, Separation of Powers that gives equal power to the three branches, Checks and Balances that create balance in the three branches by checking each other and being checked and the Small States vs the Big States ensures an equal voice for all states no matter what their size.

Read More
252 Words | 2 Pages

John Marshall’s Supreme Court hearings had a positive effect on the United States. From court cases like McCulloch v. Maryland, declared that the federal courts could decide if state laws were unconstitutional. The McCulloch v. Maryland trial went to the supreme court because Maryland had put a tax in place that too 2% of all assets of the bank or a flat rate of $30,000. John Marshall saw this tax as unconstitutional for the simple fact that people were being denied their property under the state legislature. From the Gibbons v. Ogden case, congress’s power over interstate commerce was strengthened.

Read More
646 Words | 3 Pages

In both the McCulloch v. Maryland and Gibbons v. Ogden cases, John Marshall asserted the power of judicial review, and legitimatized the Supreme Court within the national government. The Marshall Court, over the span of thirty years, managed to influence the life of every American by aiding in the development of the judicial branch and establishing a boundary between the state and national government. John Marshall’s Supreme Court cases shaped how the government is organized today. He strongly believed in Federalism, and that the national government should be sovereign, rather than the states. The Supreme Court under John

Read More
811 Words | 4 Pages

John Marshall had a significant impact on strengthening the national government during his term as Chief Justice from 1800-1830. Marshall achieved this goal by strengthening the power of the Supreme Court in three main court cases. In Marbury v. Madison Marshall established the practice of judicial review, then in McCulloch v. Maryland he weakened the central government and Gibbons v. Ogden provided the federal government with the ability to regulate interstate commerce. Marbury v. Madison (1803) was a court case that began the practice of judicial review. This case started because the night before President John Adams term ended, he appointed 42 justices of the peace.

Read More
463 Words | 2 Pages

“The accumulation of all powers..in the same hands, whether of one or many (is) the very definition of tyranny.” (James Madison, Federalist Paper #47, 1788) ( Background Essay) This quote explains the reasoning for one of the framers, (B) Separation of Powers. The framers of the constitution were created to prevent tyranny and create a stronger government that would hold the nation together. Tyranny ultimately means harsh, absolute power in the hands of one individual-- like a king or dictator. The constitution guarded against tyranny in 4 ways: (A)Federalism, (B)Separation of Powers, (C)Checks & Balances, and (D)Small State-Large State.

Read More
669 Words | 3 Pages

However this idea was eventually scrapped and they wrote a whole new constitution. This constitution would protect America from tyranny, so they could keep a civilized and united country. The Constitution that was made helped defend America from almost all types of tyranny and is still helping us hundreds of years later. One way the Constitution prevented tyranny is by supporting Federalism.

Read More
468 Words | 2 Pages

The states righters of Marshall’s era, much like the antifederalists of the previous era, believed that the Constitution served as a generic limit on federal power while the Tenth Amendment served as a general grant of, near, limitless discretionary power for the states. The antifederalists, chiefly those who supported the ‘league’ concept of the Articles of Confederation, feared a strong central government that wielded discretion and its accompanying power. In the same way the state righters desired state independence and discretion, not to be infringed upon by a unified Federal government. This mindset lead to, on multiple occasions, conflicts in which states challenged Federal supremacy.

Read More
185 Words | 1 Pages

Federalism is the different types of principle that the government enforce law to ensure the safety for citizen and non citizens. Paragraph 2 of the Constitution is commonly referred to as the Supremacy Clause. It establishes that the federal constitution, and federal law generally the supremacy clause can also overtake the state laws and even state constitutions. The founding fathers decide to use federalism as a way to control the people and their actions, they believed that governmental power inevitably poses as a threat to individual citizens for life and liberty because some states may abuse their power so the government decide to make laws to prevent states from taking too much power. only the federal government can intervene with

Read More
800 Words | 4 Pages

The idea of federalism was used by the same writer that wrote the Declaration of Independence, James Madison. In one famous paper called the federalist papers, James Madison suggested that “In the compound republic of America, the power is divided between two distinct governments, and to separate departments, hence double securite arises to the rights of people.” The term double security in the quote is referring to controlling itself and each other. The delegates that wrote the constitution took the consideration of Madison's ideas and separated powers to the state and the federal government. States had the power to hold votes, set up local governments, build schools, pass marriage and divorce laws and others.

Read More
1823 Words | 8 Pages

This country was founded with the attempt to separate the federal government and the state government, known as federalism. The goal of federalism is to divide the power of state and federal governments, protect the rights of the state, and prevent tyranny of the majority. Throughout the years, federalism turned into dual federalism where the state and federal government were completely independent of each other and only shared a dependency on the Constitution. The united states suppressing now to cooperative federalism, the national government has assumed even more power, overruling the states with Supreme Court decisions and actions, and executive Orders. Furthermore, the Federal government should grant their state governments more power, due to the connection the state governments hold with their local people.

Read More

More about Chief Justice John Marshall: The Balance Of Power In The United States

Related Topics

Open Document