In the standard view of the Judicial Branch people think of courts, lawyers and lawsuits, or they possibly even think of today's television court shows. However, the Judicial System goes much deeper than just discovering truths to solve disputes, murders, and insider-trading scandals. The court, which is over two centuries old, has a deep history which has helped to shape it into the grand institution that it has become. Today's court system is slightly confusing in that not only does each state have its own system of district, appellate and Supreme Courts, but the nation as a whole also has district, appellate and Supreme Courts. When the constitution was first drafted, the Supreme Court (because there were no other courts until the Judiciary Act of 1789) had little power. Since then however many things have changed. In 1803 and 1974 the Judicial Branch gained the power to declare unconstitutional law null and void, and to override executive privilege, respectively. Each time that they expanded their powers they did so to protect the individual freedoms of the individuals that are covered under the constitution. In doing so they just so happened to expand their powers over the other two branches of government.
Judicial Review came about in the case of Marbury v. Madison when Marbury asked for a writ of mandamus. He petitioned directly to the Supreme Court because the Judiciary Act of 1789 had a provision that allowed him to go directly to the Supreme Court and bypass the lower courts. The Supreme Court, in the review of the case declared that Section thirteen of the Judicial Act was unconstitutional, and thus overruled a law made by Congress. This was the first case of judicial review ever recorded. Marshall, in deciding the case had to weigh the constitution against law made by congress. Never before had a justice been faced with a case in which the constitution and a law were in conflict.
