Maeva Marcus · November 2012
80 GEO. WASH. L. REV. 1794 (2012)
Eleven of the first twelve Justices to serve on the Supreme Court participated in the creation and ratification of the Constitution. Their active participation in the constitutional process shaped their perspectives of both federal law and the Constitution. Through a series of examples, this Article shows that the initial group of Justices emerged from the Founding period with remarkably similar views of the purposes for which the Constitution was established, but that differences arose among them on specific points of constitutional interpretation. Reviewing early Supreme Court opinions and grand jury charges written by the Justices indicates how participating in the creation and ratification of the Constitution permitted the Court to speak with a unified voice on such things as the importance of the law of nations and the need for judicial review. The Justices’ participation in Constitution-making activities also led to disagreement on certain topics, such as how states were to be treated and whether the requirement of circuit riding in the Judiciary Act of 1789 was constitutional.
