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Description
In this original and thought-provoking book, Sylvia Snowiss presents anew interpretation of the origin of judicial review. Snowiss traces thedevelopment of judicial review from American independence through thetenure of John Marshall as Chief Justice, showing that Marshall's rolewas far more innovative and decisive than has yet been recognized.According to Snowiss, all support for judicial review before Marshallcontemplated a fundamentally different practice from that we knowtoday. Marshall did not simply reinforce or extend ideas alreadyaccepted but, in superficially minor and disguised ways, effected aradical transformation in the nature of the constitution and thejudicial relationship to it.
Snowiss argues that originally constitutional limits were understood tobe a statement of first political principles committed to writing.Through carefully crafted opinions and without public recognition,Marshall transformed these principles into supreme written law.Simultaneously he changed judicial review from the defense of principlein circumstances of clear violation into routine application andinterpretation of constitutional text. In her last chapter, Snowissprobes the implications of this analysis for contemporary controversiesabout judicial review. Her reinterpretation offers a new perspective onassumptions about intent and the status of constitutional text madeboth implicitly and explicitly by contending sides in the fundamentalrights debate. More important, it reopens and recasts the most basicand enduring problem of American constitutional law—the relationshipbetween its legal and political components.
Sylvia Snowiss is professor of political science at the California State University, Northridge.
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Contents
Chapter 1. Fundamental Law and ordinary Law
Chapter 2. Period 1: From Independence to Federalist
Chapter 3. Period 2: From Federalist 78 to Marbury
Chapter 4. Enforcing and Expounding the Constitution
Chapter 5. Period 3: The Marshall Court
Chapter 6. The Province and Duty of the Judicial Department
Chapter 7. The Rediscovery of Fundamental Law
Index
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