Question

In McCulloch v. Maryland, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that a state could not tax the congressionally-created Bank of the United States. On what constitutional principal did the Court rely regarding this relationship between the state and federal governments?

Answer 1

Supremacy Clause of Article VI of the Constitution

Step-by-step explanation:

Supreme Court ruled based on the constitutional principal of Supremacy Clause of Article VI of the Constitution regarding the relationship between the state and federal governments.

Here, the court, ruled that, Maryland has no power to tax the Bank because, considering Supremacy Clause of Article VI of the Constitution, the laws of the United States is superior in the case of conflicting state laws. In the Chief Justice word: "the government of the Union, though limited in its powers, is supreme within its sphere of action, and its laws, when made in pursuance of the constitution, form the supreme law of the land." Because "the power to tax is the power to destroy,".

Other constitutional principle in which the verdict was based in relation to state and federal government is the issue of " constitutional sovereignty" in which United States has constitutional sovereignty there by Maryland's tax, violated constitutional sovereignty because it acted as a levy against all the people in the United States by a state accountable to only some of the people.

Another constitutional principle in which the court rule is Necessary and Proper Clause of Article I, Section 8, which expressly grants Congress the power to pass laws such as the power to regulate interstate commerce, collect taxes, and borrow money.