The constitution is either a superior paramount law, unchangeable by ordinary means, or it is on a level with ordinary legislative acts, alterable when the legislature shall please to alter it. It is emphatically the province and duty of the judicial department to say what the law is. This is the very essence of judicial duty.
John MarshallNo political dreamer was ever wild enough to think of breaking down the lines which separate the States and compounding the American people into one common mass.
John MarshallIt is emphatically the province and duty of the judicial department to say what the law is...If two laws conflict with each other, the courts must decide on the operation of each...This is of the very essence of judicial duty.
John MarshallThe people made the Constitution, and the people can unmake it. It is the creature of their own will, and lives only by their will.
John MarshallThe power to tax involves the power to destroy;...the power to destroy may defeat and render useless the power to create.
John MarshallWhen a law is in its nature a contract, when absolute rights have vested under that contract, a repeal of the law cannot divest those rights.
John MarshallThe constitution is either a superior paramount law, unchangeable by ordinary means, or it is on a level with ordinary legislative acts, alterable when the legislature shall please to alter it. It is emphatically the province and duty of the judicial department to say what the law is. This is the very essence of judicial duty.
John Marshall