McCulloch v. Maryland was the first, and probably the most important, Supreme Court decision addressing federal power. In this case, the justices held that the federal government has implied or "unenumerated" powers under Article I, Section 8 of the United States Constitution. That section is now known as the "necessary and proper" clause. Show The Supreme Court established that congressional power extends beyond the scope of the Constitution and that state governments cannot interfere with the federal government. In doing so, the justices defined the scope of Congressional power and clarified the relationship between state and federal government. It all started when Alexander Hamilton convinced Congress to establish a national bank. BackgroundShortly after George Washington was inaugurated as the nation's first president in 1789, his Treasury Secretary, Alexander Hamilton, proposed a plan to create a national bank. The idea was controversial from the start. Thomas Jefferson, who was Secretary of State at the time, feared having a central bank to regulate American currency would take too much power away from the states. (Fans of the hit musical Hamilton might recognize this as the conflict from "Cabinet Battle #1.") And the 1787 Constitutional Convention deliberately decided that the Constitution should not give Congress the power to create corporations. But, Congress opted to try out Hamilton's idea, creating the First Bank of the United States with a 20-year charter. Then, they let the charter lapse in 1811. However, the nation faced significant economic problems after the War of 1812, which prompted Congress to create the Second Bank of the United States in 1816. Some states passed laws to try and undermine the national bank's operations. Others, like Maryland, decided to tax it. In 1818, Maryland's state legislature passed a $15,000 annual tax on any bank operating within the state that was not charted by the state government. Only one institution fit that description - The Second Bank of the United States. James W. McCulloch, the head of the bank's Baltimore branch, refused to pay the tax. The state of Maryland argued that because the Constitution was "silent on the subject of banks," the federal government was not authorized to create one. But when the case reached the U.S. Supreme Court in 1819, the court disagreed. What Are Enumerated Powers? What Are Implied Powers?In constitutional law, we talk about government power in terms of what is specifically outlined in the Constitution and what isn't. The things the Constitution outlines for Congress to do are "enumerated" powers. Enumerated powers are also sometimes called expressed powers or explicit powers. Most of them are covered in Article I, Section 8 of the Constitution. The federal government's enumerated powers include:
But Congress has the power to do many other things, thanks to the part of the Constitution which states it can make all laws "necessary and proper" to carry out its enumerated powers. These are known as the legislature's "unenumerated" or "implied" powers. In the years that followed McCulloch, Congress used the "necessary and proper" argument to pass laws in many different areas. Later Supreme Court cases concluded that Congress's implied powers include:
Some argue this goes against the Constitution's 10th Amendment, which states that "powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people." How the Supreme Court Decided McCulloch v. MarylandIn deciding McCulloch v. Maryland, the Supreme Court had two questions to answer: 1. Did Congress have the power to establish a national bank? 2. Did Maryland's law taxing the bank unconstitutionally interfere with Congress's power? Renowned attorney and orator Daniel Webster, who would later serve as Secretary of State, argued on behalf of the national bank. Writing the court's unanimous decision, Chief Justice John Marshall stated that the Constitution grants Congress the power to make "all laws necessary and proper" for carrying out the capabilities outlined in Article I, Section 8. A supporter of national government power, Chief Justice Marshall defined "necessary" to mean anything "appropriate and legitimate." This gave Congress broad authority to carry out its constitutional duties, so long as its actions were logically tied to one of its enumerated constitutional powers. Although the Constitution said nothing about the federal government establishing a bank, the court held that doing so would help Congress carry out its other duties - such as collecting taxes and maintaining armed forces. Furthermore, Marshall concluded, Article VI establishes the Constitution as the "supreme Law of the Land." Therefore, states have no power to interfere with federal law, and Maryland's tax on the national bank was unconstitutional. They reasoned that if states can tax one facet of the federal government, they can tax them all, defeating the purpose of having a federal government at all. In a now-famous portion of the decision, Justice Marshall wrote, "the power to tax is the power to destroy." The Impact of McCulloch v. MarylandThe decision in McCulloch had a profound effect on cases involving state vs. federal power. The doctrine of implied powers created by the court became a powerful tool for the federal government. The case established, once and for all, that when state and federal laws are in conflict, the federal law always wins. McCulloch also paved the way for what some call the "administrative state," a form of government that employs an extensive professional class to oversee government, the economy, and society. Essentially, the federal regulators who oversee many aspects of American life, including environmental agencies and labor regulators. Without the McCulloch decision, some of these agencies might not exist. Whether the administrative state is a good thing or not is generally a matter of political opinion. Still, there's no doubt that debate would look very different if the Supreme Court had come to a different conclusion in McCulloch. Read the Supreme Court's full opinion in McCulloch v. Maryland on FindLaw's Cases & Codes.
McCulloch v. Maryland (1819) is one of the first and most important Supreme Court cases on federal power. In this case, the Supreme Court held that Congress has implied powers derived from those listed in Article I, Section 8. The “Necessary and Proper” Clause gave Congress the power to establish a national bank. On this page you will find two different tools for teaching McCulloch v. Maryland (1819). There is a short eLesson activity featuring the case, as well as a more robust document-based question (DBQ) unit that includes classroom-friendly excerpts of the following documents:
Download the McCulloch v. Maryland DBQResources
SummaryIt was 1819 and the United States had been a nation under the Constitution for barely a generation when an important case about federal power reached the Court. After a first attempt in 1791, Congress established the second National Bank of the United States in 1816. Many states opposed branches of the National Bank within their borders. They did not want the National Bank competing with their own banks, and objected to the establishment of a National Bank as an unconstitutional exercise of Congress’s power. The state of Maryland imposed a tax on the bank of $15,000/year, which cashier James McCulloch of the Baltimore branch refused to pay. The case went to the Supreme Court. Maryland argued that as a sovereign state, it had the power to tax any business within its borders. McCulloch’s attorneys argued that a national bank was “necessary and proper” for Congress to establish in order to carry out its enumerated powers. Chief Justice John Marshall wrote, “Although, among the enumerated powers of government, we do not find the word ‘bank,’ we find the great powers to lay and collect taxes; to borrow money; to regulate commerce Let the end be legitimate, let it be within the scope of the constitution, and all means which are appropriate, which are plainly adapted to that end, which are not prohibited, but consist with the letter and spirit of the constitution, are constitutional.” Further, the Court ruled that Maryland could not tax the national bank: “That the power to tax involves the power to destroy. If the states may tax one instrument, employed by the [federal] government in the execution of its powers, they may tax any and every other instrument This was not intended by the American people. They did not design to make their government dependent on the states.” Marshall also noted an important difference between the Constitution and the Articles of Confederation (the United States’ first governing document that had been replaced by the Constitution). The Articles said that the states retained all powers not “expressly” given to the federal government. The Tenth Amendment, Marshall noted, did not include the word “expressly.” This was further evidence, he argued, that the Constitution did not limit Congress to doing only those things specifically listed in Article I. Questions
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What did the Supreme Court decide in McCulloch v. Maryland 1819 )? Multiple select question?
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