In his book John Marshall, Defender of the Constitution, Francis N. Stites tells the story of Marshall's life in a series of steps covering different periods in the man's life. Marshall was born in Virginia in 1755 and is described by Stites as a Virginian "by birth, upbringing, disposition, and property" (Stites 1). He became a lawyer in Virginia and was a Federalist during the era when the Constitution as being developed, and Stites analyzes the arguments on both sides in the debate over the Constitution and relates this to Marshall as defender of that document once he ascended to the Supreme Court. Marshall was key in defending the Federalist agenda in Virginia, and he was involved in the XYZ Affair in France. Because of his success in the latter case, he returned as a national hero and continued negotiating with France and writing to Talleyrand concerning matters of import to America. Marshall served in the Sixth Congress and helped defend Adams in the Thomas Nash affair. Marshall believed that the judiciary should avoid partisan politics, but it was a partisan political battle that put him on the Supreme Court and that dominated his early years in that job. Stites also analyzes his term on the Court and the rulings he led that helped shape the way the Constitution has been judged by the Court ever since.
John Marshall was the third Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States, and he headed the Court during the era when the primary function of the Supreme Court was asserted, the task of settling constitutional disputes and deciding on the constitutionality of issues raised in the courts. Probably the most famous case of the Marshall court was that of Marbury v. Madison in 1803, which established the right of the Supreme Court to undertake the judicial review of a congressional statute, a principal that pertains to this day and that gives the Supreme Court the power to overturn statues if they are deemed uncon...