Marshall, John

Born: September 24, 1755; Germantown, Virginia.  Death: July 6, 1835; Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.  Member the U.S. House of Representatives, 1799-1800.  He served as U.S. Secretary of State, 1800-1801.  He served as the Chief Justice of the United States Supreme Court, 1801-1835 (the longest serving Chief Justice in American History).  Marshall’s first landmark case was Marbury v. Madison, which established the basis of judicial review in 1803.  Chief Justice John Marshall spent his 35 years on the Supreme Court attempting to establish, and expand federal supremacy.  He developed federal supremacy in his opinion of the Mcculloch v. Maryland case in 1819 where the Court invalidated a Maryland law that taxed all banks in the State, including a branch of Alexander Hamilton’s creation, the national Bank of the United States.  Marshall held that although none of the enumerated powers of Congress explicitly authorized the incorporation of the national bank, the Necessary and Proper Clause provided the basis for Congress’s action.  Marshall concluded that “the government of the Union, though limited in its power, is supreme within its sphere of action.”