Monday, December 30, 2013

Did the Supreme Court declare the national bank constitutional?

The Supreme Court considered the constitutionality of the Bank of the United States in McCulloch v. Maryland (1819). In this landmark case, which involved the question of whether states had the power to tax branches of the national bank, the Court ruled that the bank was constitutional. Chief Justice John Marshall ruled that the power to create a national bank was implied by the powers to tax, print and coin money, and borrow money on the credit of the United States. These powers were expressly delegated to Congress in the Constitution. This case settled the constitutionality of the Bank of the United States, but it emerged again in the 1830s when President Andrew Jackson, an inveterate opponent of the bank, vetoed a bill that rechartered it. But it also dramatically expanded the scope of federal authority by empowering Congress to pass laws under the Necessary and Proper, or "elastic" clause in Article I, Section 6 of the Constitution.

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