Although decisions such as Chisholm v. Georgia were upheld, the members of the Court still realized that the Constitution itself did not explicitly give to them the power that they desired. This outlook, however, did begin to change after John Adams appointed the Federalist John Marshall to Chief Justice of the United States in 1801. .
Upon appointment, John Marshall had a yearning to develop the strength of the Judiciary of the United States, and he wanted to use this strength to defend the foundation of national union that had been created. This development came with Marshall's custom of letting one justice's opinion stand for all the members of the court. The greatest of these opinions during his term would come in 1803 in what has been considered one of the most monumental court cases in the history of the United States-Marbury v. Madison. This decision developed a clearer understanding of the strength of the Court over the union when Marshall ordered Marbury to look elsewhere (due to the aspect of the Court's original jurisdiction) for redress of his desired and deserved commission to be a Justice of the Peace in the District of Columbia. Marshall demonstrated once again his desire for improved nation-state relations in the 1810 Fletcher v. Peck case, which involved state legislatures being bribed to sell large areas of land. Working off of precedent in cases such as Marbury and Chisholm, Marshall made it clear in Fletcher that the Supreme Court is indeed empowered to hold state laws unconstitutional. Here, he declared what no one would dispute:.
"Georgia cannot be viewed as a single, unconnected sovereign power, on whose legislature no other restrictions are imposed than may be found in its own constitution. Georgia ia part of a large empire; Georgia is a member of the American Union; that Union has a Constitution which is the supremacy acknowledged by all, and which imposes limits to the legislatures of the several states, which none claim a right to pass.