McCulloch v. Maryland

1819

Venue: SCOTUS
Facts: Congress incorporated a bank, which had unpopular and corrupt policies and management. Maryland started taxing it, and held McCulloch criminally liable for not paying the tax.
Posture: Unclear.
Issue: Two:
  1. Does the constitution give congress power to incorporate a bank?
  2. Can Maryland tax the bank without violating the constitution?
Holding: Yes, and no.
Rule: The US government is supreme (within its limited powers). It must therefore have the means to carry out what it enacts. If it determines how its duties will be performed, that's allowed.

The states have no power to impede this.
Reasoning: The power to tax is the power to destroy. States might not all agree on how things should be done. We can't have deadlock between them, nor can we have one state hold the others hostage. Therefore, states can't tax (or otherwise impede) things enacted by congress. The MD law is unconstitutional.

Congress is empowered to create "all laws necessary and proper." This means that the laws must be given force, and even though there might be more than one way to accomplish that end, as long as the end is legitimate, we must defer to congress about the means.
Dicta: [the American people] did not design to make their government dependent on the states.