Which of the following is true of John Marshalls decision in McCulloch v Maryland quizlet?

Introduction

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:

  • United States Constitution, Article I, Section 8, Clause 18
  • Letter from An Old Whig, 1787
  • Brutus No. 1, 1787
  • Federalist No. 33, 1788
  • Federalist No. 39, 1788
  • Thomas Jefferson, Opinion on the Constitutionality of the Bill for Establishing a National Bank, 1791
  • Memorandum No. 1, Edmund Randolph to George Washington, 1791
  • Alexander Hamilton’s Opinion on the National Bank, 1791
  • McCulloch v. Maryland Unanimous Decision, 1819
  • President Andrew Jackson’s Veto Message, 1832
  • King Andrew the First Cartoon, 1833
  • U.S. v. Comstock Majority Opinion, 2010
  • U.S. v. Comstock Dissent, 2010

Download the McCulloch v. Maryland DBQ

Resources

  • McCulloch v. Maryland at the Oyez Project

Summary

It 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

  1. What happened to bring McCulloch v. Maryland to the Supreme Court?
  2. Read Article I, Section 8 (link above) and underline the express powers of Congress that might be dependent on the operation of a bank. Can Congress effectively carry out its powers without establishing a national bank?
  3. How did the Supreme Court rule?
  4. To what extent did the ruling in McCulloch v. Maryland expand federal power?

This Supreme Court Case addressed the issue of Federal power and commerce.

In the landmark Supreme Court case McCulloch v. Maryland, Chief Justice John Marshall handed down one of his most important decisions regarding the expansion of Federal power. This case involved the power of Congress to charter a bank, which sparked the even broader issue of the division of powers between state and the Federal Government.

In 1816 Congress established the Second National Bank to help control the amount of unregulated currency issued by state banks. Many states questioned the constitutionality of the national bank, and Maryland set a precedent by requiring taxes on all banks not chartered by the state. In 1818 the State of Maryland approved legislation to impose taxes on the Second National Bank chartered by Congress.

James W. McCulloch, a Federal cashier at the Baltimore branch of the U.S. bank, refused to pay the taxes imposed by the state. Maryland filed a suit against McCulloch in an effort to collect the taxes. The Supreme Court, however, decided that the chartering of a bank was an implied power of the Constitution, under the “elastic clause,” which granted Congress the authority to “make all laws which shall be necessary and proper for carrying into execution” the work of the Federal Government.

This case presented a major issue that challenged the Constitution: Does the Federal Government hold sovereign power over states? The proceedings posed two questions: Does the Constitution give Congress power to create a bank? And could individual states ban or tax the bank? The court decided that the Federal Government had the right and power to set up a Federal bank and that states did not have the power to tax the Federal Government. Marshall ruled in favor of the Federal Government and concluded, “the power to tax involves the power to destroy."

What was the most important result of Marshall's decision in McCulloch v. Maryland?

The court decided that the Federal Government had the right and power to set up a Federal bank and that states did not have the power to tax the Federal Government. Marshall ruled in favor of the Federal Government and concluded, “the power to tax involves the power to destroy."

Which is true of the decision in McCulloch v. Maryland quizlet?

The Supreme Court case McCulloch v. Maryland established that Congress had the power to establish a national bank and that a state (in this case, Maryland) did not have the power to tax branches of the federal government that are carrying out powers legal in the Constitution.

What was the decision in the Supreme Court case McCulloch v. Maryland 1819 )? Quizlet?

n McCulloch v. Maryland (1819) the Supreme Court ruled that Congress had implied powers under the Necessary and Proper Clause of Article I, Section 8 of the Constitution to create the Second Bank of the United States and that the state of Maryland lacked the power to tax the Bank.

What is the significance of John Marshall's ruling in Marbury v Madison quizlet?

What is the significance of John Marshall's ruling in Marbury v. Madison? Chief Justice John Marshall's ruling established the precedent of judicial review by which the Supreme Court has the final say on whether a law is constitutional or unconstitutional.