 Republicans opposed the ratification process, and were infuriated that the Democrats were attempting to revise the entire constitution without calling a constitutional convention, as had been called for the state's two previous constitutions. Marshall argued that no convention was needed because the existing constitution did not call for one. Republicans took the issue to court and the Marion County Circuit Court granted an injunction removing the constitution from the 1912 ballot. Marshall appealed, but the Indiana Supreme Court upheld the decision in a judgment which stated that the Constitution of Indiana could not be replaced in total without a constitutional convention, based on the precedent set by Indiana's first two constitutions. Marshall was angry with the decision and delivered a speech attacking the court and accusing it of overstepping its authority. He launched a final appeal to the United States Supreme Court but left office in January 1913 while the case was still pending. Later that year, the court declined the appeal, finding that the issue was within the sole jurisdiction of the state courts. Marshall was disappointed with the outcome. Subsequent historians, like Professor Linda Gugin, have called the process and the document itself "hopelessly flawed", and legal expert James St. Claire has written that if the constitution had been adopted, large parts would probably have been ruled unconstitutional by the federal courts.
