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The Supreme Court of the United States. 6 6
Marshall was, until then, the
the outgoing administration secretary of state, headed by
John Adams From Jefferson's election to his assumption as
President, on March 4, transcendent events would occur. In that brief
interregno, the outgoing president - apart from the designation of Marshall in
the Court - ordered three measures that would cause a strong confrontation
With the incoming president. On the one hand, he proposed the modification of the
Judicial Law, and reduced the number of Supreme Court judges from six to
five. The reason publicly offered was the sixth judge of the high court, Cushing, was ill and could not perform his function. But it was
Obviously, this reduction took Jefferson away from once
assumed his position, designate a replacement. In the project also
they created sixteen positions of circuit judges. This proposal was approved.
by Congress on February 13.7
On the other hand, a few days later, Adams
sent a new bill referred to the District Charter
from Columbia (today Washington D. C.). In this project it was proposed,
among other things, the creation of peace courts for the district, units
who would be in charge of judges who would serve 5 years in the position.
Congress passed the law on February 27 and authorized the president to
appoint magistrates to occupy those courts. March 2 is
say, one day before Jefferson swore as president, Adams proposed 42 people to fill those positions and, the next day, the Senate lent
their agreement Quickly, Adams signed all the designations and
a feverish race against the clock began, in order to notify how many judges
it could. He became all night running with those errands
but, a cause of the number of appointments, those corresponding to
Marbury and his three litisconsorts will remain without being formally communicated to their recipients. The official notifier was James Marshall, Herma Clinton, Robert Lowry, "Marbury vs. Madison" and judicial review, University Press
