McCulloch v Maryland
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Composed: c.1816 CE
In 1816 Congress created the Second Bank of the United States (BUS) with a twenty-year charter. The Maryland legislature blamed the 1818 economic depression on the BUS, and passed a law that taxed any bank not chartered within the state, i.e., the BUS. When the BUS refused to pay the tax, Maryland sued the cashier of the bank, James McCullough. Maryland and McCullough brought the case before the Supreme Court, which ruled the BUS constitutional and the Maryland law unconstitutional. The court argued that Congress had the power to charter the bank under the “necessary and proper” clause of Article I, Section 8. Therefore, the court decided that Congress possessed this legitimate execution of enumerated powers to regulate interstate commerce, collect taxes, and borrow money. Maryland’s tax on the BUS violated the sovereignty of the Union, which the court stated rested in the people of the United States and not individual states. In sum, the court established the federal government and therefore the US constitution as the “supreme law of the land.”