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Difficulty: Very hardThe Marshall Court and Judicial Nationalism

Thomas Jefferson, letter to Spencer Roane, September 6, 1819:

"In denying the right they [the federal judiciary] usurp of exclusively explaining the constitution, I go further than you do... The constitution, on this hypothesis, is a mere thing of wax in the hands of the judiciary, which they may twist and shape into any form they please. It should be remembered, as an axiom of eternal truth in politics, that whatever power in any government is independent, is absolute also... A judiciary independent of a king or executive alone, is a good thing; but independence of the will of the nation is a solecism, at least in a republican government."

Thomas Jefferson's critique in the excerpt most directly challenges which of the following constitutional doctrines established by the Marshall Court?

  1. A
    The Court's efforts to uphold the strict constructionist platform of the Democratic-Republican Party by dismantling the national bank.
  2. B
    The Court's ruling that federal regulatory authority over commerce was strictly limited to transactions crossing state lines, returning local control to state legislatures.
  3. The Court's expansion of federal power through a loose construction of the Constitution, which subordinated state sovereignty to federal jurisdiction.Answer
  4. D
    The Court's endorsement of the principle that states retained the sovereign right to nullify federal laws, echoing the governance structure of the Articles of Confederation.

Answer

The Court's expansion of federal power through a loose construction of the Constitution, which subordinated state sovereignty to federal jurisdiction.
The correct answer is correct because Thomas Jefferson's letter was written in response to Spencer Roane's essays opposing McCulloch v. Maryland (1819). In that case, the Marshall Court used a loose construction of the Constitution to rule that Congress had the implied power to establish the Second Bank of the United States and that states could not tax federal entities, thereby establishing federal supremacy over state laws. Jefferson's critique that the Constitution was being treated as a 'thing of wax' directly targets this broad, nationalistic interpretation of federal power.

Step-by-Step Solution

1
Identify the historical context of the stimulus by noting the date (September 1819) and the recipient (Spencer Roane, a Virginia judge who wrote essays against the Supreme Court).
The historical context is the immediate aftermath of the landmark Marshall Court decision in McCulloch v. Maryland (March 1819).
Knowing the specific decision and the states' rights backlash helps pinpoint the exact constitutional doctrine Jefferson is responding to.
2
Analyze Jefferson's critique that the Constitution is a 'thing of wax in the hands of the judiciary' which they 'may twist and shape into any form.'
This critique targets the Court's use of a loose constructionist interpretation of the Constitution (specifically the Elastic Clause) to find implied powers not explicitly written in the text.
The 'thing of wax' metaphor indicates an objection to flexible or expansive interpretation rather than a strict adherence to the literal text.
3
Evaluate the options to find which Marshall Court doctrine represents the expansion of federal power over states via loose construction.
The doctrine of implied powers and federal supremacy, established in McCulloch v. Maryland, fit this description perfectly.
McCulloch declared that Congress had implied powers to charter a bank and that states could not tax federal entities, directly subordinating state sovereignty to federal laws.
4
Verify that the other options represent historical misconceptions or incorrect doctrines.
Rulings limiting federal commerce power, supporting nullification (compact theory), or adhering to Democratic-Republican strict construction are historically incorrect or opposite to the Marshall Court's record.
Eliminating distractors confirms that the loose construction and federal supremacy doctrine is the correct target of Jefferson's letter.

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The Marshall Court and Judicial Nationalism
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The Marshall Court and Judicial Nationalism

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