Courts can declare acts of Congress, the President, and the states unconstitutional and refuse to enforce them. It is the judiciary's heaviest tool and the reason a branch with no army or budget balances the other two.
No clause grants it. Marbury v. Madison (1803) reasoned that judges deciding cases under a written supreme Constitution must refuse to apply laws that conflict with it.
Every federal court; the Supreme Court has the last word
Review happens only inside real cases: someone with standingThe requirement that a plaintiff show a concrete, particularized injury, caused by the defendant, that a court can redress. No injury, no case.Full definition in the glossary must challenge a law's application, and the ruling binds through precedentA prior decision that guides or controls later cases. Courts must follow decisions of the courts above them; 'stare decisis' is the practice of standing by what was decided.Full definition in the glossary. Any federal court can unanimous consentDoing business by universal agreement instead of votes. Most Senate floor action happens this way, which is why a single objecting senator has real power.Full definition in the glossary a law unconstitutional; appeals carry the question up, and a Supreme Court holding binds every court. The counterweights are real but slow: new appointments, constitutional amendment, and the Court's own restraint doctrines.
Constitution Annotated, Marbury v. Madison
Terms to know: judicial reviewCourts' power to strike down laws and executive acts that violate the Constitution, established by Marbury v. Madison (1803).Full definition in the glossary · standingThe requirement that a plaintiff show a concrete, particularized injury, caused by the defendant, that a court can redress. No injury, no case.Full definition in the glossary · precedentA prior decision that guides or controls later cases. Courts must follow decisions of the courts above them; 'stare decisis' is the practice of standing by what was decided.Full definition in the glossary
