Explain the dilemma faced by John Marshall and the Supreme Court at the beginning of Marbury v Madison.

The Supreme Court faced a dilemma in deciding Marbury’s case: The justices knew that if the Court were to order Madison to deliver Marbury’s commission, and he disregarded it, the powerlessness of the last Federalist stronghold of the national government, the federal judiciary, would be revealed for the whole nation to see.

1. international: struggle for hegemony and empire outstrips the fiscal resources of the state

2. political conflict: conflict between the monarchy and the nobility over the “reform” of the tax system led to paralysis and bankruptcy.

3. the enlightenment: impulse for reform intensifies political conflicts; reinforces traditional aristocratic constitutionalism, one variant of which was laid out in montequieu’s spirit of the laws; introduces new notions of good government, the most radical being popular sovereignty, as in rousseau’s social contract [1762]; the attack on the regime and privileged class by the literary underground of “grub street; ” the broadening influence of public opinion.

4. social antagonisms between two rising groups: the aristocracy and the bourgeoisie

5. ineffective ruler: louis xvi

6. economic hardship, especially the agrarian crisis of 1788-89 generates popular discontent and disorders caused by food shortages.

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