Question

In 1819, the Supreme Court first settled a dispute between a national and state law. The State of Maryland had placed a tax on the Baltimore branch of the Second Bank of the United States. Congress had created the bank and many people opposed it. The Maryland legislature hoped to destroy the bank. When a bank cashier refused to pay the tax, the Maryland courts convicted him. The Supreme Court cleared the cashier of all charges. The Court said the State of Maryland had no right to tax the federal bank, and it based its decision on the Supremacy Clause. Over the years, the Supreme Court has found thousands of state and local laws to be unconstitutional. It has also ruled that thousands of other state and local laws were constitutional. True or False?

Answer 1

This statement is true. The Supreme Court has found thousands of state and local laws to be unconstitutional over the years.

Step-by-step explanation:

The subject of this question is History. The question is asking whether it is true or false that the Supreme Court has found thousands of state and local laws to be unconstitutional over the years. The answer is true.

In the case of McCulloch v. Maryland in 1819, the Supreme Court ruled that the State of Maryland had no right to tax the Second Bank of the United States and that the federal bank was protected by the Supremacy Clause of the Constitution. This decision established the principle of national supremacy and prohibited states from interfering with the actions of the federal government. Since then, the Supreme Court has made numerous decisions declaring state and local laws unconstitutional.

Examples of other cases where the Supreme Court found state and local laws to be unconstitutional include Brown v. Board of Education in 1954, where the Court ruled that racial segregation in schools violated the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment, and Roe v. Wade in 1973, where the Court struck down a Texas law that criminalized abortion as a violation of a woman's constitutional right to privacy.