Today in History: Justice Marshall I

On this date, February 4, 1801, John Marshall -- who was still, as it happens, serving as President Adams's Secretary of State -- took his seat as the fourth Chief Justice of the United States.  His later decision in Fletcher v. Peck, 10 U.S. 87 (1810), held that states cannot revoke contract rights enjoyed by their citizens even where the state claims that the legislature was bribed into making the agreement.

[Frank Snyder]