History of the United States I / Unit 17 USH1 2409 worked example, 60 to 90 seconds
The Arc of Theme Ten
The idea
The thread runs in four movements. Marshall claims for the Court the power to nullify acts of Congress, and establishes it in a case where nobody could appeal. The Court then finds that power unenforceable against a president in the Cherokee cases. Taney uses it in eighteen fifty-seven to settle the largest political question in the country in favour of one side. The Radicals answer not by argument but by amendment, writing three new provisions into the document. And the Court then narrows all three within twenty years.
In practice
A power asserted, found unenforceable, used decisively, answered by amendment, and then narrowed by the same institution that had been overruled.
Where people slip
Carry the shape rather than the cases. Constitutional interpretation in this period is never a neutral reading. Each movement is an institution taking or yielding ground against the others, and the doctrine follows the outcome, which is the same lesson Unit 14 entry 1973 taught about states' rights. Ask what any constitutional argument delivers before asking whether it is sound.
Your place on the trail
Every lesson rests on earlier ones and opens later ones. Tap any to jump.
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