The Supremacy of the Constitution of the United States of America

            The purpose of creating a strong Federal government is that its most important document, the Constitution, remains supreme and impermeable against any passed law that undermines it. Through his writing, Chief Justice John Marshall discusses “whether an act repugnant to the Constitution can become the law of the land.” He specifies that the Constitution is either a “Paramount Law” unchangeable by ordinary means or it is at the same level as other ordinary acts of government, subject to change when the legislature might please to do so. It is the purpose and design of our form of government that the Constitution remains unchanged by the common laws that may be approved against it. (Major Problems, Page 174.)

            Chief Marshall addresses the consequences of having a Constitution easily altered by the ordinary legislative acts through two very important points. He first mentions the fact that the origin of the American governed is designed to limit all the branches of government, among these, the legislative; “The powers of the legislature are defined and limited; and that those limits must not be mistaken or forgotten, the Constitution is written” (Major Problems, Page 174.) Among these limits, he argues, is that to remove legitimacy to any ordinary Act of Congress that goes against the literature of the Constitution. These limits, therefore, are of the utmost importance in preserving our limitation of powers, for “The distinction between a government with limited and unlimited powers is abolished if those limits do not confine the persons on whom they are imposed on” (Major Problems, Page 174.) The Chief Justice finally goes on to argue that should this be the case, that legislatures may alter the Constitution when it pleases through ordinary Acts of Congress, “then written Constitutions are absurd attempts, on the part of the people, to limit a power in its own nature illimitable” (Major Problems, Page 174.)

            The Constitution, therefore, to fulfill the purpose of its creation, must remain unchanged by any ordinary act of the legislature. Alexander Hamilton, for example, wanted to ensure that the volatility of a faction not be capable of changing such a permanent document. He reiterated this position by expressing that “people are turbulent and changing; they seldom judge or determine right” (Major Problems, Page 148.) James Madison, in the same lines, mentioned that the Constitution and its validity ought to be preserved against any sentiments of specific peoples. As one of the chief architects of the Constitution he believed it was “intended for the ages” (Major Problems, Page 148.) Consequently, if this document must remain supreme and unchanged, then the theory of the government that upholds it must be that an act of the legislature repugnant to the Constitution is declared void.

One of the most important elements in the system of American Government is the primacy upheld by the Constitution. If the legitimacy of any branch of government, local or federal, judicial or legislative, emanates solely from the powers granted by the United States Constitution, then no ordinary act of the legislature, no executive order from the President, and no Supreme Court opinion can go against what is specified in it. To allow that any ordinary governmental act undermine the supremacy of the laws specified by the Constitution, is to tear up the very fabrics of our form of government.