Importance of Judicial Review

Judicial review is the power of the judiciary to review the acts of its coequal branches to see if they are valid according to the constitution (Hall, 88). Although it was not written into the constitution, judicial review was active in many places before the constitution. For instance, Alexander Hamilton wrote in the Federalist Papers that if the legislature declared in its statutes something that stood in opposition to the will of the people declared in the constitution, then the judiciary should find in favor of the people (Hall, 90). Even before that, judicial review was practiced in state courts before 1789. It is evident in the efforts to form state tribunals known as councils of censors and councils of revision which existed in Pennsylvania, New York and Vermont.

The Pennsylvania Constitution of 1776 provided that the Constitution could not be violated, and a council was formed to oversee the constitutionality of the actions of the executive and legislative branches (Hall 90). In New York, the governor, chancellor, and justices of the state supr

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Category: Government - I