The judiciary of the United States is so constructed and extended as to absorb and destroy the judiciaries of the several states; thereby rendering law as tedious, intricate and expensive, and justice as unattainable by a great part of the community, as in England; and enable the rich to oppress and ruin the poor.
"Essays on the Constitution of the United States"
Paul Leicester Ford
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."
"John Marshall and the Constitution A Chronicle of the Supreme Court, Volume 16 In The Chronicles Of America Series"
Edward S. Corwin
Marshall's audacity in invoking generally recognized moral principles against legislative sovereignty in his interpretation of the "obligation of contracts" clause pointed the way to the American judiciaries for the discharge of their task of defining legislative power.
"John Marshall and the Constitution A Chronicle of the Supreme Court, Volume 16 In The Chronicles Of America Series"
Edward S. Corwin