Constitutional Opinion No. 2026-0756
Case Information
- Content Scored
- Marbury v. Madison, 5 U.S. 137 (1803)
- Source
- Supreme Court of the United States, U.S. Reports Vol. 5 (1 Cranch)
- Author
- Chief Justice John Marshall (opinion of the Court, unanimous)
- Publication Date
- 1803-02-01
- Content Type
- Judicial Opinion / Legal-Normative Text
- Opinion Issued
- 2026-07-20
- AFCS Version
- 1.0
Holding
This is the foundational vindication of the permanent written constitutional order, earning the highest place the corpus has yet recorded for a judicial opinion, because the principle it announces is very nearly the whole of the article the Standard prizes most. Marshall's reasoning is limited government made enforceable: "The powers of the legislature are defined and limited; and that those limits may not be mistaken or forgotten, the constitution is written." From this follows paramountcy — "a legislative act, contrary to the constitution, is not law" — and the duty that names the doctrine: "It is, emphatically, the province and duty of the judicial department, to say what the law is." That is Article XVII entire — the Constitution as supreme, permanent, written law with structural limits that actually confine the branches. The case is equally a lesson in the limits of Washington, enforced against the Court ITSELF: it struck the section of the Judiciary Act by which Congress had enlarged the Court's own original jurisdiction, holding Article III's enumerated grant exclusive — a branch policing the boundary at the cost of its own power (Article XII). It is the rule of law in plainest form — "a government of laws, and not of men," a remedy for a vested right, high officers answerable to law (Article XVIII) — and it protected Marbury's vested right to his commission (Article IX). No countervailing article: the power claimed was claimed in service of limits and exercised in restraint (the Court denied itself jurisdiction). Scored as Legal/Normative text (85/15). Tier 1 nets to 84; the result is 85 — America First, the highest judicial opinion in the corpus. Principle scored, not result.
It is the judgment of this Court that Opinion No. 2026-0756 is hereby entered into the record, in accordance with the America First Constitutional Standard. The score stands. The reasoning is published. The record is public.