# Could congress prevent SCOTUS from invalidating laws? **URL:** \ **Category:** Politics & Elections\ **Created:** [October 16, 2020, 5:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-congress-prevent-scotus-from-invalidating-laws/923130 "2020-10-16T17:56:25Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 1\ **Showing post:** 18
**Author:** ![Northern\_Piper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/northern_piper/32/5304_2.png) [@Northern\_Piper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Northern_Piper)\ **Post date:** [October 20, 2020, 10:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-congress-prevent-scotus-from-invalidating-laws/923130/18 "2020-10-20T22:58:36Z")
Here’s Treanor’s lead-in to his discussion of _Hayburn’s Case_, which dealt with the _Invalid Pensions Act_: > [@](#): > > **_Hayburn’s Case_ [1792] was a landmark in the history of judicial review and was recognized as such at the time**. In 1800, when in _Cooper v. Telfair_ the Supreme Court was considering a challenge to a state statute on state constitutional grounds, Justice Chase in the course of oral argument observed that “there is no adjudication of the Supreme Court itself upon the point” whether a congressional statute could be held unconstitutional, but also noted, **“It is . . . a general opinion, it is expressly admitted by all this bar, and some of the Judges have, individually, in the Circuits, decided, that the Supreme Court can declare an act of congress to be unconstitutional**. . . .” He was referring to _Hayburn’s Case_, the first case in which Supreme Court Justices concluded that a congressional statute was unconstitutional. That was before Marshall was appointed to the Court in 1801, and _Marbury_ was decided in 1803. --- _[View the full topic](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-congress-prevent-scotus-from-invalidating-laws/923130)._