Marbury v. Madison<span>, 5 U.S. 137 (1803), was a landmark United States Supreme Court case in which the Court formed the
basis for the exercise of judicial
review in the United States under Article III of the Constitution. The landmark decision
helped define the boundary between the constitutionally
separate executive and judicial
branches of the American form of
government.</span>
<span>The case resulted
from a petition to the Supreme
Court by William Marbury, who had been
appointed Justice of the Peace in the District of Columbia by President John Adams but whose commission was not subsequently delivered.
Marbury petitioned the Supreme Court to force the new Secretary of State James Madison to deliver the documents. The Court,
with John Marshall as Chief Justice, found firstly that
Madison's refusal to deliver the commission was both illegal and remediable.
Nonetheless, the Court stopped short of compelling Madison (by writ of mandamus) to hand over
Marbury's commission, instead holding that the provision of the Judiciary Act of 1789 that enabled Marbury to bring his
claim to the Supreme Court was itself unconstitutional, since it purported to
extend the Court's original
jurisdiction beyond that which
Article III established. The petition was therefore denied</span>
