Marbury vs. Madison

During the last hours of Adams' presidency, he decided to make hundreds of governmental employments. The outcome of this was that the Congress became completely under Federal control during Jefferson's Democratic-Republican rule. This blocked Jefferson from passing anything while Congress maintained its control. For Adams to employ all of these appointees, known as midnight judges, he had to deliver many papers to be signed by Federalist supporters, these were known as the midnight papers. However some of these papers could not be delivered, due to Secretary of State; James Madison's refusal to distribute the documents. One of the supporters who did not receive his papers was William Marbury. He attempted to make the Court force the papers, even though the Court was under Federalist control, they denied him the force of the papers because they did not have the Jurisdiction to accomplish it.