Marbury v. Madison
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40 free Marbury V. Madison trivia questions with answers — history quiz, new questions added Oct 2026.
Marbury v. Madison began as a squabble over paperwork. In the last hours of one administration, a batch of appointments was signed and sealed, but some never reached the men they were meant for. One of those men, William Marbury, took James Madison to the Supreme Court over it in 1801. This quiz covers the whole story: the bitter election that set it up, the people on each side, what Marbury asked the Court to do, how it answered in 1803, and why that answer still shapes American government. Later questions follow the decision through the rulings that leaned on it over the next century and a half. It is pitched for high school civics and U.S. history students reviewing for a test, and for anyone who wants to check how well they remember one of the most important decisions in American constitutional law. Every answer comes with a short explanation.
30 of 40 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01Which principle of American law was established when the Supreme Court decided Marbury v. Madison in 1803?
Judicial review
Judicial review lets American courts strike down laws that violate the Constitution, a power the Constitution itself never spells out.
Q 02What was the outcome for William Marbury himself when the Supreme Court ruled on his lawsuit in February 1803?
He lost the case
He lost the case: the justices ruled 4–0 that they had no power to give him the order he wanted, and he never served in the post.
Q 03Which chief justice wrote the Supreme Court's unanimous opinion in Marbury v. Madison?
John Marshall
John Marshall had led the Court for about two years when he used a minor patronage dispute to claim the power to strike down acts of Congress.
Q 04Which mocking nickname did Thomas Jefferson's allies give William Marbury and other last-minute appointees of 1801?
Midnight Judges
Midnight Judges got the name because the outgoing president was said to be signing their appointments late into his last night in office.
Q 05Which outgoing president appointed William Marbury to office just two days before his own term ended in 1801?
John Adams
John Adams had lost the 1800 election, so he packed newly created court posts with loyal supporters before his rival could take office.
Q 06Which 1974 case drew on Marbury v. Madison to make a president surrender tape recordings for a criminal trial?
United States v. Nixon
United States v. Nixon forced the president to hand over his Watergate tapes, and he resigned soon afterward.
Q 07Marbury v. Madison strengthened which system by making the judiciary an equal of Congress and the president?
Checks and balances
Checks and balances finally reached the bench: federal judges could now refuse to enforce a law that Congress had passed.
Q 08What office did James Madison hold when William Marbury sued him over a withheld commission in 1801?
Secretary of State
Secretary of State was then the office that sent out federal commissions, so Thomas Jefferson's order to hold them back fell to Madison.
Q 09According to Marbury v. Madison, what is the status of an act of Congress that conflicts with the Constitution?
It is void
It is void, the opinion declared, because a written constitution would mean nothing if ordinary legislation could override it.
Q 10James Madison, the defendant in Marbury v. Madison, went on to win which higher office in the election of 1808?
The presidency
The presidency went to Madison just five years after the ruling, and he served two terms as the fourth person to hold it.
Q 11William Marbury sued James Madison in 1801 to obtain his commission for which minor court office?
Justice of the peace
Justice of the peace was a relatively powerless, low-paying local post, an unlikely prize to have reshaped American government.
Q 12Which type of court order did William Marbury ask the Supreme Court to issue against James Madison in December 1801?
Writ of mandamus
Writ of mandamus is an order commanding a government official to carry out a duty the law requires, in this case handing over a signed commission.
Q 13Marbury v. Madison struck down part of which law, passed by the First Congress to create the federal courts?
Q 21Marbury v. Madison barred Congress from enlarging which Supreme Court power over cases involving states and ambassadors?
Original jurisdiction
Original jurisdiction is the power to hear a case first rather than on appeal, and the Constitution gives the Supreme Court very little of it.
Q 22Where would William Marbury have served as a local judge had James Madison handed over his 1801 commission?
District of Columbia
District of Columbia posts like his were new: Congress had only recently created them, and dozens were filled in a single batch.
Q 23What did the Supreme Court conclude in 1803 about James Madison's refusal to hand William Marbury his commission?
Judiciary Act of 1789
Judiciary Act of 1789, section 13, was the casualty: the justices read it as handing them more power than the Constitution allows, and refused the gift.
Q 14Which part of the Constitution, the one creating the federal courts, did Marbury v. Madison say Congress violated?
Article III
Article III lists the few kinds of cases the Supreme Court may hear first, and a lawsuit like William Marbury's was not among them.
Q 15William Marbury and the president who appointed him both belonged to which group, voted out of power in 1800?
Federalist Party
Federalist Party loyalists filled the new posts because the party, beaten at the polls, hoped to keep its grip on the courts.
Q 16Which candidate tied Thomas Jefferson in the 1800 Electoral College, months before the Marbury v. Madison dispute began?
Aaron Burr
Aaron Burr and Jefferson each won 73 electoral votes, and it took the House 36 ballots to break the deadlock, just weeks before the inauguration.
Q 17Which infamous 1857 ruling is often cited as the next to strike down a federal law after Marbury v. Madison?
Dred Scott v. Sandford
Dred Scott v. Sandford struck down the Missouri Compromise more than fifty years later, a ruling that helped push the country toward civil war.
Q 18Which Founding Father's 1788 essay on the judiciary, published as Publius, shaped the reasoning of Marbury v. Madison?
Alexander Hamilton
Alexander Hamilton had argued fifteen years earlier, in essay No. 78 of his famous series, that judges must put the Constitution above any statute.
Q 19Which body confirmed William Marbury and dozens of other last-minute appointees in a single day in March 1801?
The Senate
The Senate approved the whole batch on March 3, the day after the names were sent over and the last full day of the outgoing administration.
Q 20Thomas Jefferson, James Madison and the chief justice who decided Marbury v. Madison were all natives of which state?
Virginia
Virginia produced all three, and the idea that courts should enforce only legitimate laws was already widely accepted there.
It was illegal
It was illegal, the justices said, because the appointment became complete once the commission had been signed and sealed.
Q 24How did James Madison respond when the Supreme Court heard Marbury v. Madison in February 1803?
He refused to appear
He refused to appear, leaving the attorney general to be questioned on the stand about what had become of the commissions.
Q 25How do historians think Thomas Jefferson was likely to treat a court order to deliver William Marbury's commission?
Ignore it
Ignore it, most likely: the young Court had no means of forcing a hostile administration to comply, and defiance would have exposed that weakness.
Q 26Marbury v. Madison declared that wherever a legal right is violated, the law must also provide what?
A remedy
A remedy must follow a right, a rule long settled in English common law before the Court applied it to William Marbury.
Q 27The Marbury v. Madison opinion ended its case for courts' power over statutes by citing which part of the Constitution?
Supremacy Clause
The Supremacy Clause makes the Constitution, and only laws made in pursuance of it, the supreme law of the land.
Q 28How were political foes Thomas Jefferson and the chief justice who decided Marbury v. Madison related to each other?
Distant cousins
Distant cousins through the Randolph family, the two were kin only on paper: Jefferson decried the power his relative claimed for the courts.
Q 29Whom did the chief justice in Marbury v. Madison send out to deliver the last-minute commissions in March 1801?
His younger brother
His younger brother James had a single day to hand out the sealed commissions, and a few, including William Marbury's, never reached their owners.
Q 30What did Congress do to the Supreme Court in 1802 that delayed Marbury v. Madison until the following year?
Canceled its term
Canceled its term: Congress pushed the justices' next sitting back to 1803, so its repeal of the 1801 court law took effect before they could rule on it.