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Landmark case centered around whether a state could tax a federal institution and whether Congress
had constitutional authority to create a national bank.
The Second Bank of the United States had established a branch office in Maryland. The Maryland
legislature had passed a law requiring a tax to be levied on banks operating within the state that were
not chartered by the state legislature.
The Court ruled that the state had no authority to tax federal property, and that Congress had
constitutional authority to create a national bank.
In this case Chief Justice Marshall noted that, “An unlimited power to tax involves, necessarily, a
power to destroy; because there is a limit beyond which no institution and no property can bear
taxation.”
Full text: McCulloch v. Maryland, 17
U.S. (Wheaton) 316 (1819) |