Quote#Politics & Power
Certainly all those who have framed written constitutions contemplate…
Quote byJohn Marshall · 1755–1835
Commonly attributed — not confirmed in an authoritative edition. Cited on Wikiquote to: Marbury v. Madison (1803), 5. U.S. (1 Cranch) 137, at 177.
English (original)
Certainly all those who have framed written constitutions contemplate them as forming the fundamental and paramount law of the nation, and consequently the theory of every such government must be, that an act of the legislature, repugnant to the constitution, is void.
— John Marshall
More from John Marshall
The law does not expect a man to be prepared to defend every act of his life which may be suddenly and without notice alleged against him.
The people made the Constitution, and the people can unmake it. It is the creature of their own will, and lives only by their will.
We have no more right to decline the exercise of jurisdiction which is given, than to usurp that which is not given. The one or the other would be treason to the constitution.
It is the peculiar province of the legislature to prescribe general rules for the government of society; the application of those rules to individuals in society would seem to be the duty of other departments.
A constitution is framed for ages to come, and is designed to approach immortality as nearly as human institutions can approach it.
Seldom has a battle, in which greater numbers were not engaged, been so important in its consequences as that of Cowpens..