文档介绍：etown University Law CenterScholarship @ ETOWN LAW2001The Marbury Mystery: Why Did William MarburySue in the Supreme Court?Susan Low etown University Law Center, ******@ paper can be downloaded free of charge from: open-access article is brought to you by the etown Law Library. Posted with permission of the this and additional works at: of mons, and theLegal History, Theory and mons18 Const. Comment. 607-627 (2001)ETOWN LAWFaculty Publications January 2010 The MarburyMystery: Why Did William Marbury Sue in the Supreme Court? 18 Const. Comment. 607-627 (2001) Susan Low Bloch Professor of Law etown University Law Center ******@ paper can be downloaded without charge from: mons: : /abstract=288811Posted with permission of the author HeinOnline -- 18 Const. Comment. 607 2001THE MARBURY MYSTERY: WHY DID WILLIAM MARBURY SUE IN THE SUPREME COURT? Susan Low Bloch* In 1801, when William Marbury petitioned the Supreme Court to issue a writ of mandamus ordering Secretary of State James Madison to deliver mission as justice of the peace, he initiated one of the most important cases in the Court's his-tory. But why did Marbury choose the Supreme Court? Was there a lower federal court that could have granted the writ at the time? The short answer is "yes." Rather than making an un-essful attempt to invoke the original jurisdiction of the United States Supreme Court, I have learned that he could have brought his suit in the then newly-created Circuit Court of the District of Columbia. Did Marbury know of this possibility? Would the Circuit Court have granted the requested writ of mandamus? As this essay will show, the answer to both these questions is "probably yes." That being so, the intriguing-indeed, mysterious-questions surrounding Marbury's ch