Settle down class, time for our next Power Line University lesson. This week we take up how The Federalist explains Article III, the judiciary, and especially the nowadays familiar power of judicial review, which is nowhere specified in the text of the Constitution, and was in fact an issue of controversy and confusion at the time of the founding.
So we start our investigation with Federalist #78, where Alexander Hamilton skillfully walks through the nature of judicial review, and how the American version will differ from the British practice from which we borrowed much, but not everything.
Of course this matter didn’t begin to get settled until Marbury vs. Madison in 1803, and not even then in some important respects that we introduce this week, and will return to in our next and concluding class in a few days.
And if your preference is to watch the session and read along with our Power Point slides of excerpts from The Federalist, you can take in the YouTube version here.
So pull up you desk chair here, or go over to the main lecture hall at Ricochet.
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