Interpreting the Bill of Rights and the Nature of Federalism: Barron v. City of Baltimore

Abstract

In 1833, a mere forty‐five years after the Constitution of the United States took effect, the young republic was striving to establish the form its constitutional government would take. For while the Constitution and its first ten amendments had set forth many principles regarding the rights of individual citizens with respect to the actions of their government, the precise nature of these relations would be determined in large part by U.S. Supreme Court Chief Justice John Marshall.