John Marshall was born near Germantown, Virginia, in 1755. During the Revolutionary War, he served in the Continental Army. He began practicing law in Richmond, Virginia, in 1780 and served in the Virginia state government from 1782 to 1795. Marshall was a member of the state convention that ratified the U.S. Constitution for Virginia. From 1799 to 1800 he served in the U.S. House of Representatives. President John Adams appointed Marshall secretary of state in 1800. In 1801 Marshall was named chief justice of the Supreme Court in the final days of Adams’s presidency. Marshall served from 1801 to 1835, making decisions in cases that increased the power of the Supreme Court and established the power of the federal government over states. Marshall is considered one of the greatest Supreme Court justices and a founder of the American system of constitutional law.
