Marbury, the Election of 1800, and Judicial Review

 

The election of 1800 was recently made famous by Hamilton: The Musical. It was the election involving John Adams, Thomas Jefferson, and Aaron Burr. Jefferson defeated Adams, but ended up in an electoral vote tie with Burr. So the election was decided in the House of Representatives with each state delegation getting one vote. Hamilton endorsed his political enemy Jefferson, and Jefferson was elected President by the House of Representatives.

In the last days of his Administration Adams stacked the courts with as many Federalist judges as he could. However, not all of the commissions were delivered before Jefferson took office. Jefferson immediately ordered his Secretary of State, James Madison, to hold up all commissions that had not been delivered. One of these was that concerning Marbury.

Marbury sued to mandamus Madison to deliver his commission; he brought his suit directly before the Supreme Court of the United States.