United States
The United States of America (USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a federal republic composed of 50 states, a federal district, five major self-governing territories, and various possessions.[fn 6] At 3.8 million square miles (9.8 million km2) and with over 325 million people, the United States is the world's third- or fourth-largest country by total area[fn 7] and the third-most populous country. The capital is Washington, D.C., and the largest city by population is New York City. Forty-eight states and the capital's federal district are contiguous and located in North America between Canada and Mexico. The state of Alaska is in the northwest corner of North America, bordered by Canada to the east and across the Bering Strait from Russia to the west. The state of Hawaii is an archipelago in the mid-Pacific Ocean. The U.S. territories are scattered about the Pacific Ocean and the Caribbean Sea, stretching across nine official time zones. The extremely diverse geography, climate, and wildlife of the United States make it one of the world's 17 megadiverse countries.[19]
Paleo-Indians migrated from Siberia to the North American mainland at least 15,000 years ago.[20] European colonization began in the 16th century. The United States emerged from the thirteen British colonies established along the East Coast. Numerous disputes between Great Britain and the colonies following the French and Indian War led to the American Revolution, which began in 1775, and the subsequent Declaration of Independence in 1776. The war ended in 1783 with the United States becoming the first country to gain independence from a European power.[21] The current constitution was adopted in 1788, with the first ten amendments, collectively named the Bill of Rights, being ratified in 1791 to guarantee many fundamental civil liberties. The United States embarked on a vigorous expansion across North America throughout the 19th century, acquiring new territories,[22] displacing Native American tribes, and gradually admitting new states until it spanned the continent by 1848.[22] During the second half of the 19th century, the Civil War led to the abolition of slavery.[23][24] By the end of the century, the United States had extended into the Pacific Ocean,[25] and its economy, driven in large part by the Industrial Revolution, began to soar.[26] The Spanish–American War and World War I confirmed the country's status as a global military power. The United States emerged from World War II as a global superpower, the first country to develop nuclear weapons, the only country to use them in warfare, and a permanent member of the United Nations Security Council. During the Cold War, the United States and the Soviet Union competed in the Space Race, culminating with the 1969 moon landing. The end of the Cold War and the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991 left the United States as the world's sole superpower.[27]
The United States is a founding member of the United Nations, World Bank, International Monetary Fund, Organization of American States (OAS), and other international organizations. The United States is a highly developed country, with the world's largest economy by nominal GDP and second-largest economy by PPP, accounting for approximately a quarter of global GDP.[28] The U.S. economy is largely post-industrial, characterized by the dominance of services and knowledge-based activities, although the manufacturing sector remains the second-largest in the world.[29] The United States is the world's largest importer and the second largest exporter of goods.[30][31] Though its population is only 4.3% of the world total,[32] the U.S. holds 33.4% of the total wealth in the world, the largest share of global wealth concentrated in a single country.[33] The United States ranks among the highest nations in several measures of socioeconomic performance, including average wage,[34] human development, per capita GDP, and productivity per person.[35] The U.S. is the foremost military power in the world, making up a third of global military spending,[36] and is a leading political, cultural, and scientific force internationally
History
Indigenous peoples and pre-Columbian history
Monks Mound in Cahokia, a UNESCO World Heritage Site and the largest and most influential settlement in Mississippian culture. The concrete staircase follows the approximate course of ancient wooden stairs.
The Cliff Palace, built by the Ancestral Puebloans, is the largest Native cliff dwelling in Mesa Verde National Park.
Over time, indigenous cultures in North America grew increasingly complex, and some, such as the pre-Columbian Mississippian culture in the southeast, developed advanced agriculture, grand architecture, and state-level societies.[57] From approximately 800 to 1600 AD[58] the Mississippian culture flourished, and its largest city Cahokia is considered the largest, most complex pre-Columbian archaeological site in the modern-day United States.[59] While in the Four Corners region, Ancestral Puebloans culture developed.[60] Three UNESCO World Heritage Sites located in the United States are credited to the Pueblos: Mesa Verde National Park, Chaco Culture National Historical Park, and Taos Pueblo. The earthworks constructed by Native Americans of the Poverty Point culture in northeastern Louisiana have also been designated a UNESCO World Heritage site.[61] In the southern Great Lakes region, the Iroquois Confederacy (Haudenosaunee) was established at some point between the twelfth[62] and fifteenth centuries,[63] lasting until the end of the Revolutionary War.[64]
The date of the first settlements of the Hawaiian Islands is a topic of continuing debate.[65] Archaeological evidence seems to indicate a settlement as early as 124 AD.[66] During his third and final voyage, Captain James Cook became the first European to begin formal contact with Hawaii.[67] After his initial landfall in January 1778 at Waimea harbor, Kauai, Cook named the archipelago the "Sandwich Islands" after the fourth Earl of Sandwich—the acting First Lord of the Admiralty of the British Royal Navy
Independence and expansion (1776–1865)
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Following the passage of the Lee Resolution, on July 2, 1776, which was the actual vote for independence, the Second Continental Congress adopted the Declaration of Independence on July 4, which proclaimed, in a long preamble, that humanity is created equal in their unalienable rights and that those rights were not being protected by Great Britain, and declared, in the words of the resolution, that the Thirteen Colonies were independent states and had no allegiance to the British crown in the United States. The fourth day of July is celebrated annually as Independence Day.[115] The Second Continental Congress declared on September 9 "where, heretofore, the words 'United Colonies' have been used, the stile be altered for the future to the 'United States' ".[116] In 1777, the Articles of Confederation established a weak government that operated until 1789.[115]
Britain recognized the independence of the United States following their defeat at Yorktown in 1781.[117] In the peace treaty of 1783, American sovereignty was recognized from the Atlantic coast west to the Mississippi River. Nationalists led the Philadelphia Convention of 1787 in writing the United States Constitution, ratified in state conventions in 1788. The federal government was reorganized into three branches, on the principle of creating salutary checks and balances, in 1789. George Washington, who had led the revolutionary army to victory, was the first president elected under the new constitution. The Bill of Rights, forbidding federal restriction of personal freedoms and guaranteeing a range of legal protections, was adopted in 1791.[118]
Although the federal government criminalized the international slave trade in 1808, after 1820, cultivation of the highly profitable cotton crop exploded in the Deep South, and along with it, the slave population.[119][120][121] The Second Great Awakening, especially 1800–1840, converted millions to evangelical Protestantism. In the North, it energized multiple social reform movements, including abolitionism;[122] in the South, Methodists and Baptists proselytized among slave populations.[123]
Americans' eagerness to expand westward prompted a long series of American Indian Wars.[124] The Louisiana Purchase of French-claimed territory in 1803 almost doubled the nation's area.[125] The War of 1812, declared against Britain over various grievances and fought to a draw, strengthened U.S. nationalism.[126] A series of military incursions into Florida led Spain to cede it and other Gulf Coast territory in 1819.[127] The expansion was aided by steam power, when steamboats began traveling along America's large water systems, which were connected by new canals, such as the Erie and the I&M; then, even faster railroads began their stretch across the nation's land.[128]
From 1820 to 1850, Jacksonian democracy began a set of reforms which included wider white male suffrage; it led to the rise of the Second Party System of Democrats and Whigs as the dominant parties from 1828 to 1854. The Trail of Tears in the 1830s exemplified the Indian removal policy that resettled Indians into the west on Indian reservations. The U.S. annexed the Republic of Texas in 1845 during a period of expansionist Manifest destiny.[129] The 1846 Oregon Treaty with Britain led to U.S. control of the present-day American Northwest.[130] Victory in the Mexican–American War resulted in the 1848 Mexican Cession of California and much of the present-day American Southwest.[131]
The California Gold Rush of 1848–49 spurred western migration and the creation of additional western states.[132] After the American Civil War, new transcontinental railways made relocation easier for settlers, expanded internal trade and increased conflicts with Native Americans.[133] Over a half-century, the loss of the American bison (sometimes called "buffalo") was an existential blow to many Plains Indians cultures.[134] In 1869, a new Peace Policy sought to protect Native-Americans from abuses, avoid further war, and secure their eventual U.S. citizenship, although conflicts, including several of the largest Indian Wars, continued throughout the West into the 1900s
Civil War and Reconstruction Era
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With the 1860 election of Abraham Lincoln, the first president from the largely anti-slavery Republican Party, conventions in thirteen slave states ultimately declared secession and formed the Confederate States of America (the "South"), while the federal government (the "Union") maintained that secession was illegal.[138] In order to bring about this secession, military action was initiated by the secessionists, and the Union responded in kind. The ensuing war would become the deadliest military conflict in American history, resulting in the deaths of approximately 618,000 soldiers as well as many civilians.[140] The South fought for the freedom to own slaves, while the Union at first simply fought to maintain the country as one united whole. Nevertheless, as casualties mounted after 1863 and Lincoln delivered his Emancipation Proclamation, the main purpose of the war from the Union's viewpoint became the abolition of slavery. Indeed, when the Union ultimately won the war in April 1865, each of the states in the defeated South was required to ratify the Thirteenth Amendment, which prohibited slavery.
Three amendments were added to the U.S. Constitution in the years after the war: the aforementioned Thirteenth as well as the Fourteenth Amendment providing citizenship to the nearly four million African Americans who had been slaves,[141] and the Fifteenth Amendment ensuring in theory that African Americans had the right to vote. The war and its resolution led to a substantial increase in federal power[142] aimed at reintegrating and rebuilding the South while guaranteeing the rights of the newly freed slaves.
Reconstruction began in earnest following the war. While President Lincoln attempted to foster friendship and forgiveness between the Union and the former Confederacy, an assassin's bullet on April 14, 1865, drove a wedge between North and South again. Republicans in the federal government made it their goal to oversee the rebuilding of the South and to ensure the rights of African Americans. They persisted until the Compromise of 1877 when the Republicans agreed to cease protecting the rights of African Americans in the South in order for Democrats to concede the presidential election of 1876.
Southern white Democrats, calling themselves "Redeemers", took control of the South after the end of Reconstruction. From 1890 to 1910, so-called Jim Crow laws disenfranchised most blacks and some poor whites throughout the region. Blacks faced racial segregation, especially in the South.[143] They also occasionally experienced vigilante violence, including lynching
Cold War and civil rights era
U.S. President Ronald Reagan at his "Tear down this wall!" speech in Berlin, Germany on June 12, 1987.[174]
The United States often opposed Third World movements that it viewed as Soviet-sponsored. American troops fought communist Chinese and North Korean forces in the Korean War of 1950–53.[176] The Soviet Union's 1957 launch of the first artificial satellite and its 1961 launch of the first manned spaceflight initiated a "Space Race" in which the United States became the first nation to land a man on the moon in 1969.[176] A proxy war in Southeast Asia eventually evolved into full American participation, as the Vietnam War.
At home, the U.S. experienced sustained economic expansion and a rapid growth of its population and middle class. Construction of an Interstate Highway System transformed the nation's infrastructure over the following decades. Millions moved from farms and inner cities to large suburban housing developments.[177][178] In 1959 Hawaii became the 50th and last U.S. state added to the country.[179] The growing Civil Rights Movement used nonviolence to confront segregation and discrimination, with Martin Luther King Jr. becoming a prominent leader and figurehead. A combination of court decisions and legislation, culminating in the Civil Rights Act of 1968, sought to end racial discrimination.[180][181][182] Meanwhile, a counterculture movement grew which was fueled by opposition to the Vietnam war, black nationalism, and the sexual revolution.
The launch of a "War on Poverty" expanded entitlements and welfare spending, including the creation of Medicare and Medicaid, two programs that provide health coverage to the elderly and poor, respectively, and the means-tested Food Stamp Program and Aid to Families with Dependent Children.[183]
The 1970s and early 1980s saw the onset of stagflation. After his election in 1980, President Ronald Reagan responded to economic stagnation with free-market oriented reforms. Following the collapse of détente, he abandoned "containment" and initiated the more aggressive "rollback" strategy towards the USSR.[184][185][186][187][188] After a surge in female labor participation over the previous decade, by 1985 the majority of women aged 16 and over were employed.[189]
The late 1980s brought a "thaw" in relations with the USSR, and its collapse in 1991 finally ended the Cold War.[190][191][192][193] This brought about unipolarity[194] with the U.S. unchallenged as the world's dominant superpower. The concept of Pax Americana, which had appeared in the post-World War II period, gained wide popularity as a term for the post-Cold War new world order.
Population
| Historical population | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Census | Pop. | %± | |
| 1790 | 3,929,214 | — | |
| 1800 | 5,308,483 | 35.1% | |
| 1810 | 7,239,881 | 36.4% | |
| 1820 | 9,638,453 | 33.1% | |
| 1830 | 12,866,020 | 33.5% | |
| 1840 | 17,069,453 | 32.7% | |
| 1850 | 23,191,876 | 35.9% | |
| 1860 | 31,443,321 | 35.6% | |
| 1870 | 38,558,371 | 22.6% | |
| 1880 | 50,189,209 | 30.2% | |
| 1890 | 62,979,766 | 25.5% | |
| 1900 | 76,212,168 | 21.0% | |
| 1910 | 92,228,496 | 21.0% | |
| 1920 | 106,021,537 | 15.0% | |
| 1930 | 123,202,624 | 16.2% | |
| 1940 | 132,164,569 | 7.3% | |
| 1950 | 151,325,798 | 14.5% | |
| 1960 | 179,323,175 | 18.5% | |
| 1970 | 203,211,926 | 13.3% | |
| 1980 | 226,545,805 | 11.5% | |
| 1990 | 248,709,873 | 9.8% | |
| 2000 | 281,421,906 | 13.2% | |
| 2010 | 308,745,538 | 9.7% | |
| Est. 2017[9] | 325,719,178 | 5.5% | |
| 1610–1780 population data.[257] Note that the census numbers do not include Native Americans until 1860.[258] |
|||
The population growth of Hispanic and Latino Americans (the terms are officially interchangeable) is a major demographic trend. The 50.5 million Americans of Hispanic descent[268] are identified as sharing a distinct "ethnicity" by the Census Bureau; 64% of Hispanic Americans are of Mexican descent.[269] Between 2000 and 2010, the country's Hispanic population increased 43% while the non-Hispanic population rose just 4.9%.[270] Much of this growth is from immigration; in 2007, 12.6% of the U.S. population was foreign-born, with 54% of that figure born in Latin America.[271][fn 11]
Minorities (as defined by the Census Bureau as all those beside non-Hispanic, non-multiracial whites) constituted 37.2% of the population in 2012[277] and over 50% of children under age one,[278][274] and are projected to constitute the majority by 2044.[278]
The United States has a birth rate of 13 per 1,000, which is 5 births below the world average.[279] Its population growth rate is positive at 0.7%, higher than that of many developed nations.[280] In fiscal year 2015, over one million immigrants (most of whom entered through family reunification) were granted legal residence.[281] Mexico has been the leading source of new residents since the 1965 Immigration Act. China, India, and the Philippines have been in the top four sending countries every year since the 1990s.[282] As of 2012, approximately 11.4 million residents are illegal immigrants.[283] As of 2015, 47% of all immigrants are Hispanic, 26% are Asian, 18% are white and 8% are black. The percentage of immigrants who are Asian is increasing while the percentage who are Hispanic is decreasing.[263]
According to a survey conducted by the Williams Institute, nine million Americans, or roughly 3.4% of the adult population identify themselves as homosexual, bisexual, or transgender.[284][285] A 2016 Gallup poll also concluded that 4.1% of adult Americans identified as LGBT. The highest percentage came from the District of Columbia (10%), while the lowest state was North Dakota at 1.7%.[286] In a 2013 survey, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found that 96.6% of Americans identify as straight, while 1.6% identify as gay or lesbian, and 0.7% identify as being bisexual.[287]
About 82% of Americans live in urban areas (including suburbs);[228] about half of those reside in cities with populations over 50,000.[288] The US has numerous clusters of cities known as megaregions, the largest being the Great Lakes Megalopolis followed by the Northeast Megalopolis and Southern California. In 2008, 273 incorporated municipalities had populations over 100,000, nine cities had more than one million residents, and four global cities had over two million (New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, and Houston).[289] There are 52 metropolitan areas with populations greater than one million.[290] Of the 50 fastest-growing metro areas, 47 are in the West or South.[291] The metro areas of San Bernardino, Dallas, Houston, Atlanta, and Phoenix all grew by more than a million people between 2000 and 2008.[290]
Language
English (American English) is the de facto national language. Although there is no official language at the federal level, some laws—such as U.S. naturalization requirements—standardize English. In 2010, about 230 million, or 80% of the population aged five years and older, spoke only English at home. Spanish, spoken by 12% of the population at home, is the second most common language and the most widely taught second language.[294][295] Some Americans advocate making English the country's official language, as it is in 32 states.[296]Both Hawaiian and English are official languages in Hawaii, by state law.[297] Alaska recognizes twenty Native languages as well as English.[298] While neither has an official language, New Mexico has laws providing for the use of both English and Spanish, as Louisiana does for English and French.[299] Other states, such as California, mandate the publication of Spanish versions of certain government documents including court forms.[300]
Several insular territories grant official recognition to their native languages, along with English: Samoan[301] is officially recognized by American Samoa. Chamorro[302] is an official language of Guam. Both Carolinian and Chamorro have official recognition in the Northern Mariana Islands.[303] Spanish is an official language of Puerto Rico and is more widely spoken than English there.[304]
The most widely taught foreign languages in the United States, in terms of enrollment numbers from kindergarten through university undergraduate studies, are: Spanish (around 7.2 million students), French (1.5 million), and German (500,000). Other commonly taught languages (with 100,000 to 250,000 learners) include Latin, Japanese, ASL, Italian, and Chinese.[305][306] 18% of all Americans claim to speak at least one language in addition to English.[307]
| Language | Percent of population |
Number of speakers |
Number who speak English very well |
Number who speak English less than very well |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| English (only) | ~80% | 237,810,023 | N/A | N/A |
| Spanish (including Spanish Creole but excluding Puerto Rico) |
13% | 40,489,813 | 23,899,421 | 16,590,392 |
| Chinese (all varieties, including Mandarin and Cantonese) |
1.0% | 3,372,930 | 1,518,619 | 1,854,311 |
| Tagalog (including Filipino) |
0.5% | 1,701,960 | 1,159,211 | 542,749 |
| Vietnamese | 0.4% | 1,509,993 | 634,273 | 875,720 |
| Arabic (all varieties) |
0.3% | 1,231,098 | 770,882 | 460,216 |
| French (including Patois and Cajun) |
0.3% | 1,216,668 | 965,584 | 251,087 |
| Korean | 0.2% | 1,088,788 | 505,734 | 583,054 |
Religion
| Affiliation | % of U.S. population | |
|---|---|---|
| Christianity | 70.6 |
|
| Protestant | 46.5 |
|
| Evangelical Protestant | 25.4 |
|
| Mainline Protestant | 14.7 |
|
| Black church | 6.5 |
|
| Catholic | 20.8 |
|
| Mormon | 1.6 |
|
| Jehovah's Witnesses | 0.8 |
|
| Eastern Orthodox | 0.5 |
|
| Other Christian | 0.4 |
|
| Judaism | 1.9 |
|
| Islam | 0.9 |
|
| Buddhism | 0.7 |
|
| Hinduism | 0.7 |
|
| Other faiths | 1.8 |
|
| Irreligion | 22.8 |
|
| Nothing in particular | 15.8 |
|
| Agnostic | 4.0 |
|
| Atheist | 3.1 |
|
| Don't know or refused answer | 0.6 |
|
In a 2013 survey, 56% of Americans said that religion played a "very important role in their lives", a far higher figure than that of any other wealthy nation.[311] In a 2009 Gallup poll, 42% of Americans said that they attended church weekly or almost weekly; the figures ranged from a low of 23% in Vermont to a high of 63% in Mississippi.[312]
As with other Western countries, the U.S. is becoming less religious. Irreligion is growing rapidly among Americans under 30.[313] Polls show that overall American confidence in organized religion has been declining since the mid to late 1980s,[314] and that younger Americans, in particular, are becoming increasingly irreligious.[310][315] According to a 2012 study, the Protestant share of the U.S. population had dropped to 48%, thus ending its status as religious category of the majority for the first time.[316][317] Americans with no religion have 1.7 children compared to 2.2 among Christians. The unaffiliated are less likely to get married with 37% marrying compared to 52% of Christians.[318]
According to a 2014 survey, 70.6% of adults in the United States identified themselves as Christians;[319] Protestants accounted for 46.5%, while Roman Catholics, at 20.8%, formed the largest single denomination.[320] In 2014, 5.9% of the U.S. adult population claimed a non-Christian religion.[310] These include Judaism (1.9%), Hinduism (1.2%), Buddhism (0.9%), and Muslim (0.9%).[310] The survey also reported that 22.8% of Americans described themselves as agnostic, atheist or simply having no religion—up from 8.2% in 1990.[320][321][322] There are also Unitarian Universalist, Scientologist, Baha'i, Sikh, Jain, Shinto, Confucian, Taoist, Druid, Native American, Wiccan, humanist and deist communities.[323]
Protestantism is the largest Christian religious grouping in the United States, accounting for almost half of all Americans. Baptists collectively form the largest branch of Protestantism at 15.4%,[324] and the Southern Baptist Convention is the largest individual Protestant denomination at 5.3% of the U.S. population.[324] Apart from Baptists, other Protestant categories include nondenominational Protestants, Methodists, Pentecostals, unspecified Protestants, Lutherans, Presbyterians, Congregationalists, other Reformed, Episcopalians/Anglicans, Quakers, Adventists, Holiness, Christian fundamentalists, Anabaptists, Pietists, and multiple others.[324] Two-thirds of American Protestants consider themselves to be born again.[324] Roman Catholicism in the United States has its origin primarily in the Spanish and French colonization of the Americas, as well as in the English colony of Maryland.[325] It later grew because of Irish, Italian, Polish, German and Hispanic immigration. Rhode Island has the highest percentage of Catholics, with 40 percent of the total population.[326] Utah is the only state where Mormonism is the religion of the majority of the population.[327] The Mormon Corridor also extends to parts of Idaho, Nevada and Wyoming.[328] Eastern Orthodoxy is claimed by 5% of people in Alaska,[329] a former Russian colony, and maintains a presence on the U.S. mainland due to recent immigration from Eastern Europe. Finally, a number of other Christian groups are active across the country, including the Oneness Pentecostals, Jehovah's Witnesses, Restorationists, Churches of Christ, Christian Scientists, Unitarians and many others.
The Bible Belt is an informal term for a region in the Southern United States in which socially conservative evangelical Protestantism is a significant part of the culture and Christian church attendance across the denominations is generally higher than the nation's average. By contrast, religion plays the least important role in New England and in the Western United States
Government and politics
The White House, home and workplace of the U.S. President
Supreme Court Building, where the nation's highest court sits
In the American federalist system, citizens are usually subject to three levels of government: federal, state, and local. The local government's duties are commonly split between county and municipal governments. In almost all cases, executive and legislative officials are elected by a plurality vote of citizens by district. There is no proportional representation at the federal level, and it is rare at lower levels.[344]
The federal government is composed of three branches:
- Legislative: The bicameral Congress, made up of the Senate and the House of Representatives, makes federal law, declares war, approves treaties, has the power of the purse,[345] and has the power of impeachment, by which it can remove sitting members of the government.[346]
- Executive: The President is the commander-in-chief of the military, can veto legislative bills before they become law (subject to Congressional override), and appoints the members of the Cabinet (subject to Senate approval) and other officers, who administer and enforce federal laws and policies.[347]
- Judicial: The Supreme Court and lower federal courts, whose judges are appointed by the President with Senate approval, interpret laws and overturn those they find unconstitutional.[348]
The Senate has 100 members with each state having two senators, elected at-large to six-year terms; one-third of Senate seats are up for election every other year. The District of Columbia and the five major U.S. territories do not have senators.[350] The President serves a four-year term and may be elected to the office no more than twice. The President is not elected by direct vote, but by an indirect electoral college system in which the determining votes are apportioned to the states and the District of Columbia.[351] The Supreme Court, led by the Chief Justice of the United States, has nine members, who serve for life.[352]
The state governments are structured in roughly similar fashion; Nebraska uniquely has a unicameral legislature.[353] The governor (chief executive) of each state is directly elected. Some state judges and cabinet officers are appointed by the governors of the respective states, while others are elected by popular vote.
The original text of the Constitution establishes the structure and responsibilities of the federal government and its relationship with the individual states. Article One protects the right to the "great writ" of habeas corpus. The Constitution has been amended 27 times;[354] the first ten amendments, which make up the Bill of Rights, and the Fourteenth Amendment form the central basis of Americans' individual rights. All laws and governmental procedures are subject to judicial review and any law ruled by the courts to be in violation of the Constitution is voided. The principle of judicial review, not explicitly mentioned in the Constitution, was established by the Supreme Court in Marbury v. Madison (1803)[355] in a decision handed down by Chief Justice John Marshall.
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