Many issues in United States history have lead to disagreements between government branches. The Constitution of the United States provides for the three branches of government. These branches are: legislative, executive and judicial. Each branch has their own duties, but sometimes, conflicts between branches occur. Two examples of conflicts are the Marbury vs. Madison case and the War Powers Act.
The Marbury vs. Madison (1803) case caused conflict between Executive branch and the Legislative branch. William Marbury argued that he was legally entitled to his legally entitled to his commission. He requested that the Supreme Court issue a writ of mandamus directed towards the Secretary of State, James Madison. Madison ignored this request saying that it would probably be ignored. The problem that arose from this case was did the Supreme Court have the power to issue a write of mandamus? .
When Marbury asked the Supreme Court to issue the writ, he was essentially asking the court to take original jurisdiction. By doing this, Marbury was asking the Supreme Court to be a trial court, even though the it was set up to be an appellate court. The Supreme Court was supposed to hear appeals from other federal and state courts. Article III, Section 2, Clause 2 states that the types of cases that the Supreme Court could use original jurisdiction in. This then meant that the Supreme Court could not write a writ of mandamus, only a lower court was allowed to. Marshall then concluded that Section 13 of the Judiciary Act of 1789 authorized the court to issue a writ violated the United States Constitution. The final decision of the case was that Marbury would not receive a writ because they could not enforce an unconstitutional law. .
The long-term effect of Marbury vs. Madison was the formation on the judicial review. Judicial Review is the power of the Supreme Court to determine the constitutionality of acts of the legislative and executive branches of the government.
