I.R.A.C. Marbury Vs. Madison

Alfredo Altamirano Díaz
Universidad Panamericana
Maestra: Ana Patricia Esquer Machado
IRAC MARBURY vs. MADISON

FACTS

* During the last 6 months of his term, President John Quincy Adams made some Federal judge, while during that, in the confusion of the Adams administration’s last days in office, Marshall, the outgoing secretary of state, failed to deliver Marbury’s commission.* Even though President Adams signed the commissions, some of the “justice of the peace” nominations were left undelivered when Jefferson took office the next day.
* Under the new Thomas Jefferson administration, James Madison was the new secretary of state and, under orders from Jefferson, refused to deliver Marbury’s commission.
* Marbury sued to order by writ of mandamus that hiscommission be delivered.

ISSUE

* Is Marbury entitled, as applicant, to claim his appointment in this way and to get the relief that he deserve, and, does the Supreme Court have enough power to decide what to do when a law is against the Constitution, so they can call that law as “invalid”?

RULE OF LAW & ANALYSIS

1. The eleventh section of this law enacts, 'that there shall beappointed in and for each of the said counties, such number of discreet persons to be justices of the peace as the president of the United States shall, from time to time, think expedient, to continue in office for five years.

a. In compliance with this law, a commission for William Marbury as a justice of peace for the county of Washington was signed by John Adams, then president of theUnited States; after which the seal of the United States was affixed to it; but the commission has never reached the person for whom it was made out.

2. Declares: ‘the president shall nominate, and, by and with the advice and consent of the senate, shall appoint ambassadors, other public ministers and consuls, and all other officers of the United States, whose appointments are not otherwiseprovided for.'

b. Mr. Adams, the late president of the United States, nominated the applicants to the senate for their advice and consent to be appointed justices of the peace of the district of Columbia; that the senate advised and consented to the appointments; that commissions in due form were signed by the said president appointing them justices, &c. and that the seal of the UnitedStates was in due form affixed to the said commissions by the secretary of state; that the applicants have requested Mr. Madison to deliver them their said commissions, who has not complied with that request; and that their said commissions are withheld from them.

3. The third section declares, that 'he shall commission all the officers of the United States.'

c. The appointment-This is also the act of the president, and is also a voluntary act, though it can only be performed by and with the advice and consent of the senate. The commission -To grant a commission to a person appointed, might perhaps be deemed a duty enjoined by the constitution. 'He shall,' says that instrument, 'commission all the officers of the United States.

4. By that act it is enacted, that thesecretary of state shall keep the seal of the United States, 'and shall make out and record, and shall affix the said seal to all civil commissions to officers of the United States, to be appointed by the president’.

d. Provided that the said seal shall not be affixed to any commission, before the same shall have been signed by the president of the United States; nor to any otherinstrument or act, without the special warrant of the president therefor.' The signature is a warrant for affixing the great seal to the commission; and the great seal is only to be affixed to an instrument, which is complete. It attests, by an act supposed to be of public notoriety, the verity of the presidential signature. It is never to be affixed till the commission is signed, because the signature,...