Marbury v. Madison
In the 1800 United States Presidential election, Thomas Jefferson won over John Adams. Days before Adams had to leave office, he wanted to give a number of people jobs (so that Jefferson could not give these jobs away). The United States Senate approved of his picks (nominations) and John Marshall, who was then Adams' Secretary of State and was to be the Chief Justice of the United States, had a number of these notices sent out. One that did not make it before midnight was to William Marbury.