[justshutupandtakeit]

Those laws were never challenged. The Court would have ruled on them had they been challenged, it had nothing to do with weakness as it had previously ruled on constitutionality of other laws.

[aristeides]

Before the Civil War, the Supreme Court had overturned Acts of Congress as unconstitutional in only two cases: Marbury v. Madison, and Dred Scott. Marbury v. Madison was the first of these, in 1801.