The government of the United States has been emphatically termed a government of laws, and not of men. It will certainly cease to deserve this high appellation, if the laws furnish no remedy for the violation of a vested legal right. (163)

It is emphatically the province and duty of the judicial department to say what the law is. (177)

Thus, the particular phraseology of the constitution of the United States confirms and strengthens the principle, supposed to be essential to all written constitutions, that a law repugnant to the constitution is void; and that courts, as well as other departments, are bound by that instrument. (179)

Chief Justice John Marshall. Marbury v. Madison, 5 U.S. 137 (1803)