You have just read about a few important rulings that the Supreme Court made before 1801. In 1801, John Marshall became the fourth Chief Justice to preside over the Supreme Court. He would serve as Chief Justice for the next 34 years, a record that has yet to be broken. During his long and illustrious career on the Court, Chief Justice Marshall participated in 1000 cases and wrote the decisions for 519 of them. Some of these decisions had a profound effect on how we interpret the Constitution today. For many, John Marshall is the most important Chief Justice in the history of the United States.
Watch the video below to see how John Marshall became Chief Justice.
John Marshall’s legal career began in 1780 when he took a six-week lecture course at the College of William and Mary. After completing the course, he acquired a license to practice law in Virginia.
It didn’t take Marshall long to become active in Virginia politics. In the 1780s he was elected to the House of Delegates and the convention to ratify the Constitution. When the first political parties formed in the 1790s, he joined the Federalist Party and became one of its leaders in Virginia.
In 1796, Marshall traveled to Philadelphia – the nation’s capital at the time – to represent Virginia in the case Ware v. Hylton. It was the only time in his life that he argued a case before the Supreme Court. While his arguments about state sovereignty were strong, the Supreme Court ruled against Virginia.
As a loyal Federalist, Marshall caught the eye of President John Adams. In 1797, Adams sent Marshall and two other commissioners to France to settle shipping disputes. France attempted to bribe the commissioners, and Marshall flatly refused to pay the bribe. President Adams later appointed Marshall to be Secretary of State.
President Adams and his Federalists were soundly defeated by Thomas Jefferson and his Democratic-Republicans in the Election of 1800. Not only did Jefferson win the presidency, but his party also gained majorities in both houses of Congress. Determined not to lose control of the entire government, Adams appointed several Federalists, including John Marshall, to positions within the Judicial Branch.
In January of 1801, Adams nominated his Secretary of State to be Chief Justice of the Supreme Court. On the surface, Marshall’s qualifications for the job were not very impressive. His legal training and experience were very limited, and he had never served as a judge prior to his appointment to the Supreme Court. However, the Senate unanimously confirmed Marshall, and he was sworn in on February 4.
Marshall proved to be the right person for the job. Almost immediately, he introduced an important change in how the Court operated. Instead of having each justice write their own opinions in cases, the Marshall Court had one justice write a single majority opinion to explain the Court’s decision. Having the Court speak with one voice gave its decisions more authority.
Question
What were John Marshall's qualifications for the job of Chief Justice?
Question
What important change did John Marshall make in Supreme Court procedures soon after he became Chief Justice? What was the effect of this change?
