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John Marshall

John Marshall Quotes

Former Chief Justice of the United States

John Marshall, a renowned jurist and politician in the United States, served as the Chief Justice of the United States. Born on September 24, 1755, in Virginia, he passed away on July 6, 1835. Marshall had a profound impact on the judicial field, with his legal principles still being followed in the American legal system today.

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Famous John Marshall Quotes

“A constitution is framed for ages to come, and is designed to approach immortality as nearly as human institutions can approach it.”

Humans Age Approach Constitution Institutions Immortality Framed

Book:The Constitutional Decisions of John Marshall

Source: The Constitutional Decisions of John Marshall

“Whether a law be void for its repugnancy to the Constitution, is, at all times, a question of much delicacy, which out seldom, if ever, to be decided in the affirmative, in doubtful case. ... But it is not on slight implication and vague conjecture that the legislature is to be pronounced to have transcended its powers, and its acts to be considered as void. The opposition between the Constitution and the law should be such that the judge feels a clear and strong conviction of their incompatibility with each other.”

“The constitution is either a superior paramount law, unchangeable by ordinary means, or it is on a level with ordinary legislative acts, alterable when the legislature shall please to alter it. It is emphatically the province and duty of the judicial department to say what the law is. This is the very essence of judicial duty.”

Mean Law Levels Duty Please Ordinary Essence Constitution Superiors Department Legislature Provinces Judicial Paramount Unchangeable

Author:John Marshall

“That the people have an original right to establish, for their future government, such principles as, in their opinion, shall most conduce to their own happiness, is the basis, on which the whole American fabric has been erected.... The principles, therefore, so established, are deemed fundamental. And as the authority, from which they proceed, is supreme ... they are designed to be permanent.... The powers of the legislature are defined, and limited; and that those limits may not be mistaken, or forgotten, the constitution is written.”

People May Has Beens Whole Government Opinion Principles Written Limits Authority Bases Constitution Originals Fundamentals Forgotten Supreme Defined Permanent Fabric Mistaken Legislature

Author:John Marshall

“An unlimited power to tax involves, necessarily, a power to destroy; because there is a limit beyond which no institution and no property can bear taxation.”

Law Bears Limits Taxes Constitution Institutions Property Patriot Unlimited Taxation Unlimited Power

Author:John Marshall

“A legislative act contrary to the Constitution is not law.”

Government Law Constitution Contrary Tyranny

Book:The Political and Economic Doctrines of John Marshall

Source: The Political and Economic Doctrines of John Marshall

“The people made the Constitution, and the people can unmake it. It is the creature of their own will, and lives only by their will.”

People Made Democracy Creatures Constitution Constitution Of The United States

Book:The Constitutional Decisions of John Marshall

Source: The Constitutional Decisions of John Marshall

“The particular phraseology of the Constitution of the United States confirms and strengthens the principle, supposed to be essential to all written constitutions, that a law repugnant to the Constitution is void; and that courts, as well as other departments, are bound by that instrument.”

Source: The Political and Economic Doctrines of John Marshall

“Certainly all those who have framed written constitutions contemplate them as forming the fundamental and paramount law of the nation, and consequently the theory of every such government must be, that an act of the legislature, repugnant to the constitution, is void.”

Government Law Nations Written Theory Constitution Fundamentals Void Contemplating Legislature Framed Paramount

Author:John Marshall

“Let the end be legitimate, let it be within the scope of the constitution, and all means which are appropriate, which are plainly adapted to that end, which are not prohibited, but consist with the letter and spirit of the constitution, are constitutional.”

Mean Ends Spirit Letters Constitution Appropriate Scope Adapted

Author:John Marshall

“The peculiar circumstances of the moment may render a measure more or less wise, but cannot render it more or less constitutional.”

May Moments Wise Circumstances Constitution Peculiar

Book:The Papers of John Marshall: Correspondence, papers, and selected judicial opinions, March 1814-December 1819

Source: The Papers of John Marshall: Correspondence, papers, and selected judicial opinions, March 1814-December 1819