legislative branch of the Government, that of expounding the
standing law, of which the Constitution would be part and parcel,
belongs to the Judiciary. The final disposition of the question
of insuring the conformity of ordinary legislation to the
Constitution turned to no small extent on the recognition of
these three great principles.

The proposal to endow Congress with the power to negative state
legislation having been rejected by the Convention, Luther Martin
of Maryland moved that "the legislative acts of the United States
made in virtue and in pursuance of the Articles of Union, and all
treaties made or ratified under the authority of the United
States, shall be the supreme law of the respective States, and
the judiciaries of the several States shall be bound thereby in
their decisions, anything in the respective laws of the
individual States to the contrary notwithstanding." The motion
was agreed to without a dissenting voice and, with some slight
changes, became Article VIII of the report of the Committee of
Detail of the 7th of August, which in turn became "the linch-pin
of the Constitution."* Then, on the 27th of August, it was agreed
that "the jurisdiction of the Supreme Court" should "extend to
all cases arising under the laws passed by the Legislature of the
United States," whether, that is, such laws should be in
pursuance of the Constitution or not. The foundation was thus
laid for the Supreme Court to claim the right to review any state
decision challenging on constitutional grounds the validity of
any act of Congress. Presently this foundation was broadened by
the substitution of the phrase "judicial power of the United
States" for the phrase "jurisdiction of the Supreme Court," and
also by the insertion of the words "this Constitution" and "the"