Page:The Supreme Court in United States History vol 1.djvu/269

Rh On February 24, 1803, less than two weeks after the arguments had closed. Chief Justice Marshall handed down his famous decision. As stated in the news- paper accounts of the day, the questions considered by the Court were: "1st. Has the applicant a right to the commission he demands ? 2d. If he has a right and that right has been violated, do the laws of his country afford him a remedy? 3d. K they do afford him a remedy, is it by a mandamus issuing from this Court ? ** ^ Taking up these pointa in the order in which they were thus propounded, Marshall gave an opinion on all three. Marbury's commission having been signed and sealed, said the Chief Justice, the appoint- ment was not revocable but vested in him legal rights which were protected by the laws of the country. Dehvery or acceptance of the conmiission was not necessary. "The Government of the United States has been emphatically termed a government of laws, and not of men. It will certainly cease to deserve this high appellation, if the laws furnish no remedy for the violation of a vested legal right.'* Where a head of a department acted merely as the political or confiden- tial agent of the Executive, in a case where the Execu- tive possessed a constitutional or legal discretion, the Courts might not control him; but where a specific duty was imposed by law, he was "amenable to the laws for his conduct; and cannot at his discretion sport away the vested rights of others/' In such cases, he might be subject to mandamus. At this point, the Chief Justice took cognizance of the attack which had been launched at the Court in Congress. "Impressions are often received," he said, "without much reflection or examination, and it is not wonder-

1 National InidHgeneer, Feb. 12. 28, 1803; American Daily AdverHter (Phil.). Feb. 25. 1808.