To what extent did Jackson both abide by and defy the Constitution ...

In 1832, Clay passed the BUS recharter bill though Congress, but Jackson vetoed it, because he said it was not only anti-western, but also ant-American. Even though the Supreme Court had declared it constitutional, Jackson regarded the executive branch superior to the judicial branch. “He had sworn to uphold the Constitution as he understood it, not as his foe John Marshall understood it” (p. 276). He defied other interpretations of the constitution and only abided to what he thought was right and what would protect his voters. By vetoing this bill he greatly amplified the power of the president and set it above two thirds of votes in Congress, because he personally found it harmful to the nation. Jackson threw of the balance between the branches and brought included personal views, which were not necessarily supported by the Constitution, this way he defied himself against the Constitution.
In 1828 the Georgia legislature asserted its own jurisdiction over Indian affairs and lands, which caused the Cherokees to appeal to the Supreme Court, which trice upheld the rights of the Indians. “But President Jackson, who clearly wanted to open Indian lands to white settlement, refused to recognize the Court’s decisions” (p.280). Jackson did not fail to recognize it, because it was against the constitution, but because he wanted to satisfy his voters, which was unconstitutional. Also his suggestion of allowing Native Americans to voluntarily move into the wide-open West later caused the Trail of Tears in which some 15,000 Cherokee were uprooted and 4,000 died along the way to their reserves. Even though Jackson’s policy sounded noble, and his motives were sympathetic towards Native Americans it was not an American democratic action, because he did not give Native Americans the same, equal protection, which they deserved in a democracy, especially since they were considered “civilized tribes”.