Understanding the Law and Legal System

The US Legal System, and the laws it serves to uphold, spans multiple jurisdictions and several levels of review. Throughout, the law shares touchpoints with the mental health system on issues from access to care to freedom from discrimination. Most fundamentally, the law and legal system are charged with safeguarding the basic rights to life, liberty, and property, set forth in the US Constitution. The unanimous decision in Marbury v Madison, 5 US 137 (1803), reserved the protection of these rights to the Supreme Court, through its power of judicial review. This power has served as the organizing force of the law and legal system, ever since.