The years 1786–87 marked a decisive turning point in the history of judicial review. Of the half dozen legal disputes that historians normally place on the list of early judicial review precedents down to the Federal Convention, fully half arose during the years 1786–1787.1 During these two years, in a variety of cases in three different states, lawyers argued on behalf of their clients that a court must declare a state statute not to be law, and in every case, the judges obliged. The North Carolina case of Bayard v. Singleton was one of these.