Supreme Court Decisions: McCulloch v. Maryland, 1819

The Supreme Court was first called upon to construe the Necessary and Proper Clause in an 1805 case, United States v. Fisher, which concerned a law giving the United States priority over other creditors in the collection of debts.1 Chief Justice Marshall held that this law was a necessary and proper means of executing Congress’s power to raise revenue and pay the debts of the United States.2 Marshall rejected the argument that acts of Congress must be indispensably necessary to give effect to a specified power, reasoning that such a requirement would produce endless difficulties.3 Rather, under the Necessary and Proper Clause, Congress must possess the choice of means, and must be empowered to use any means which are in fact conducive to the exercise of a power granted by the [C]onstitution.4

McCulloch v. Maryland involves one of the first disputes in American history over the scope of the new national government’s powers: whether Congress could incorporate a Bank of the United States. This was controversial in the 1790s because Southern members of Congress and the Executive Branch, such as James Madison and Thomas Jefferson, believed that a national bank would benefit only Northern mercantile interests and would create a financial aristocracy; they believed that the new nation should depend on farmers and what they called “agrarian virtue.”

States cannot interfere with the federal government when it uses its implied powers under the Necessary and Proper Clause to further its express constitutional powers...

On March 6, 1819, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in McCulloch v. Maryland that Congress had the authority to establish a federal bank, and that the financial institution could not be taxed by the states. But the decision carried a much larger significance, because it helped establish that the Constitution gave Congress powers that weren’t explicitly spelled out in the document...

In McCulloch v. Maryland, a landmark Supreme Court case in 1819, the court ruled that the U.S. Congress had implied powers not explicitly outlined in the Constitution. The case marked a pivotal development in U.S. legal and economic history. From its inception the United States had been divided between those in favor of a federalist system and those who advocated for states' rights and a less powerful, less centralized federal government. In its opinion in McCulloch, the court sided with the federalists, finding that the U.S. Constitution gave Congress broad legislative powers and established federal law as the supreme law of the land. According to the court, Congress was entitled to enact laws necessary to the proper running of the government, as long as the laws had not been expressly prohibited by the Constitution. Using this logic, the court in McCulloch found that Congress had constitutional authority to charter a Bank of the United States. The court also established that it was unconstitutional for state governments to tax the federal government. The McCulloch decision paved the way for a strong federal government and established that Congress would set the economic policy of the nation...

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...

McCulloch v. Maryland, U.S. Supreme Court case decided in 1819, in which Chief Justice John Marshall affirmed the constitutional doctrine of Congress’ “implied powers.” It determined that Congress had not only the powers expressly conferred upon it by the Constitution but also all authority “appropriate” to carry out such powers. In the specific case the court held that Congress had the power to incorporate a national bank, despite the Constitution’s silence on both the creation of corporations and the chartering of banks. It was concluded that since a national bank would facilitate the accomplishment of purposes expressly confided to the federal government, such as the collection of taxes and the maintenance of armed forces, Congress had a choice of means to achieve these proper ends. The doctrine of implied powers became a powerful force in the steady growth of federal power...

This year marks the 200th anniversary of U.S. Chief Justice John Marshall’s unanimous decision in McCulloch v. Maryland, an 1819 case that paved the way for the modern administrative state and established the supremacy of federal over state law. Two centuries later, politicians, jurists, and scholars continue to debate the breadth of Congress’s authority and the rights of states to regulate their own affairs...

The national bank case that established the "implied powers" of our federal government.