John Marshall Quotes About Constitution

Quotes about: Constitution

• 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.

  John Marshall

  Law, Taxation, Limits

• A legislative act contrary to the Constitution is not law.

  John Marshall

  Government, Law, Constitution

  John Marshall (2005). “The Political and Economic Doctrines of John Marshall”, p.337, The Lawbook Exchange, Ltd.

• 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.

  John Marshall

  People, Democracy, Constitution Of The United States

  John Marshall, Joseph Potter Cotton (2000). “The Constitutional Decisions of John Marshall”, p.417, The Lawbook Exchange, Ltd.

• 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.

  John Marshall

  Law, Void, Principles

  John Marshall (2005). “The Political and Economic Doctrines of John Marshall”, p.340, The Lawbook Exchange, Ltd.

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

  John Marshall

  Wise, Peculiar, May

  John Marshall (1974). “The Papers of John Marshall: Correspondence, papers, and selected judicial opinions, March 1814-December 1819”, The University of North Carolina Press

• 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.

  John Marshall

  Government, People, Fabric

• 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.

  John Marshall

  Government, Law, Void

  Marbury v. Madison (1803)

• 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.

  John Marshall

  Mean, Letters, Spirit

  McCulloch v. Maryland (1819)

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

  John Marshall

  Age, Constitution, Framed

  John Marshall, Joseph Potter Cotton (2000). “The Constitutional Decisions of John Marshall”, p.415, The Lawbook Exchange, Ltd.

• 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.

  John Marshall

  Strong, Law, Judging

  Fletcher v. Peck, 10 U.S. (6 Cranch) 87, 128, 1810.

• 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.

  John Marshall

  Mean, Law, Essence

  Marbury v. Madison (1803)

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