seven years after that in Cohens _v._ Virginia.[255]
The States' Rights argument was substantially the same in both cases. It
amounted to the contention that while the courts of Virginia were
constitutionally obliged to prefer "the supreme law of the land" as
defined in the supremacy clause over conflicting State laws it was only
by their own interpretation of the said supreme law that they, as the
courts of a sovereign State, were bound. Furthermore, it was contended
that cases did not "arise" under the Constitution unless they were
brought in the first instance by some one claiming such a right, from
which it followed that "the judicial power of the United States" did not
"extend" to such cases unless they were brought in the first instance in
the courts of the United States. In answer to these arguments Chief
Justice Marshall declared that: "A case in law or equity consists of
the right of the one party, as well as of the other, and may truly be
said to arise under the Constitution or a law of the United States,
whenever its correct decision depends upon the construction of
either."[256] Passing then to broader considerations, he continued: "Let
the nature and objects of our Union be considered; let the great
fundamental principles, on which the fabric stands, be examined; and we
think, the result must be, that there is nothing so extravagantly
absurd, in giving to the Court of the nation the power of revising the
decisions of local tribunals, on questions which affect the nation, as
to require that words which import this power should be restricted by a
forced construction."[257]

JUDICIAL REVIEW OF ACTS OF CONGRESS

Judicial review of acts of Congress is not provided for in the
Constitution in such explicit terms as is judicial review of State
legislation, but it is nevertheless fairly evident that its existence is
assumed. In the first place, the term "cases arising under the
Constitution" is just as valid a textual basis for the one type of
constitutional case as for the other; and, in the second place, it is
clearly indicated that acts of Congress are not "supreme law of the
land" unless they are "in pursuance of the Constitution," thus evoking a
question which must be resolved in the first instance by State judges,
when State legislation coming before them for enforcement is challenged
in relation to "the supreme law of the land." Furthermore, most of the
leading members of the Federal Convention are on rec