article six is the part of the constitution that declares it is the supreme law of the land.
article six is the part of the constitution that declares it is the supreme law of the land.
part of the constitution that declares it is the supreme law of the land?
article six
clause two provides that the constitution, federal laws made pursuant to it, and treaties made under its authority constitute the supreme law of the land. it provides that state courts are bound by the supreme law; in case of conflict between federal and state law, the federal law must be applied. even state constitutions are subordinate to federal law.
article six of the united states constitution
more importantly, the court held that since the supremacy clause of article vi made the us constitution the supreme law of the land and "marbury v. madison" (1803) made the supreme court the final interpreter of the constitution, the precedent set forth in "brown v. board of education" is the supreme law of the land and is therefore binding on all the states, regardless of any state laws contradicting it. the court therefore rejected the contention that the arkansas legislature and governor were not bound by the "brown" decision. the supreme court also rejected the doctrines of nullification and interposition in this case, which had been invoked by segregationists. segregation supporters argued that the states have the power to nullify federal laws or court rulings that they believe to be unconstitutional and the states could use this power to nullify the "brown" decision. the arkansas laws that attempted to prevent desegregation were arkansas' effort to nullify the "brown" decision. the supreme court held that the "brown" decision "can neither be nullified openly and directly by state legislators or state executive or judicial officers nor nullified indirectly by them through evasive schemes for segregation." thus, "cooper v. aaron" held that state attempts to nullify federal law are ineffective.
cooper v. aaron