Jefferson, Thomas

Jefferson, Thomas (b. Shadwell [now Albemarle County], Va., 13 Apr. 1743; d. Monticello, Va., 4 July 1826), statesman and president of the United States, 1801–1809. Thomas Jefferson exerted a profound influence on the Supreme Court and the course of American constitutional development. As political leader and president, his thoughts on the role of judges and on the federal system provided a significant contrast to the nationalizing ideas of Alexander Hamilton, John Marshall, and Joseph Story.

Jefferson and James Madison produced the Kentucky and Virginia Resolutions of 1798–1799, which supported the compact theory of the Constitution and denied that the Supreme Court alone had authority to determine if the laws of Congress were constitutional. Jefferson argued that the Court was a creation of the Constitution and to give it the power of judicial review would make “its discretion and not the Constitution the measure of its powers.” He argued that when the federal government assumed a power not granted to it by the Constitution, each state, as a party to the constitutional compact, had a right to declare the law unconstitutional (see State Sovereignty and States' Rights). He also believed that each branch of the federal government had a coordinate right to resolve questions of constitutionality.

As president, Jefferson confronted Federalist judges of the Supreme and lower federal courts who enjoyed tenure during good behavior. He did not support radicals in his party who wished to amend the Constitution to eliminate the federal judiciary and who favored a broad construction of the impeachment clause of Articles I, II, and III in order to remove judges for political reasons (see Impeachment). But he resisted Federalist attempts to broaden the powers of the national courts and to politicize them. He promoted repeal of the Judiciary Act of 1801, which had increased the number of federal judgeships and expanded the jurisdiction of the circuit courts. Jefferson did not overreact to the Court's decision in Marbury v. Madison (1803), although he found Chief Justice Marshall's reproof distasteful. Rather, he ignored the decision because he had gotten his way: the Court did not order the administration to deliver the commissions. Though Marshall claimed for the Court the power to interpret the Constitution, he did not explicitly claim that its power to do so was either exclusive or final. Jefferson helped initiate impeachment proceedings in 1803 against John Pickering, an alcoholic and insane district court judge, and worked behind the scenes for his conviction. But he did not support impeachment proceedings against Justice Samuel Chase, who was eventually acquitted in 1805. In the treason trial of Aaron Burr (1806), Jefferson refused to obey Marshall's subpoena to testify but accepted Burr's acquittal.

After his retirement in 1809, Jefferson criticized Marshall and the Supreme Court more directly. He opposed such nationalist decisions as Martin v. Hunter's Lessee (1816), McCulloch v. Maryland (1819), and Cohens v. Virginia (1821). He encouraged Spencer Roane and John Taylor to criticize the Court publicly. In private correspondence, Jefferson raised a number of important questions about the Supreme Court's power. Could the Court claim to be the final arbiter in conflicts between the states and the federal government, since this power was not explicitly granted in the Constitution? Could the Supreme Court arrogate this power to itself? What is the relationship of the Court to the will of the people, especially since its members are appointed during good behavior? Should the Court hold its discussions in secret and hide internal dissent by handing down unanimous decisions? Could the Court be an impartial arbiter in disputes between the federal government and the states, since it was a part of the federal government and its judges' salaries were paid by that government?

These questions do not lend themselves to easy answers, even today when we generally accept the idea of judicial supremacy on constitutional issues. As a consequence, Jefferson's criticism of the Supreme Court has resonated throughout American history and has formed the theoretical basis of the positions taken by presidents such as Andrew Jackson and Franklin Roosevelt, as well as other critics of an activist Court, who have attempted to confine the force of its decisions (see Judicial Self‐Restraint).

See also History of the Court: Establishment of the Union.

Bibliography

Richard Ellis , The Jeffersonian Crisis: Courts and Politics in the Young Republic (1971).

Richard E. Ellis