John Marshall Supreme Court Cases

John Marshall was the 4th Chief Justice of the Supreme Court reigning from 1782 to his death in 1835. He is considered to be the person who brought the Supreme Court into its role today in the Federal Government. He had a long history in Law and also served in the Revolutionary War. Marshall led what most believe to be the most influential Supreme Court cases for federal power (Biography, 2015).

One of his most influential rulings came under the Marbury v Madison case . The case involved Marbury who was a judge in Washington D.C. that had his Commission denied because the successor to the Secretary of State , James Madison, refused to deliver it. “Marshall determined that Section 13 of the Judiciary Act of 1789—authorizing the Supreme Court

In 1816, Congress created The Second Bank of the United States. In 1818, the state of Maryland passed legislation to levy taxes on the bank. James McCulloch, a cashier from the Baltimore division of the bank, refused to pay the tax (McCulloch, 2015). The two main questions that were being asked was if the Federal Government had the power to create a national bank and if Maryland was breaking the law by interfering with Congressional powers. Marshall eventually backed Congress in allowing that due to their Congressional powers, the United States Congress could create a national bank. Maryland was not allowed to tax a federal entity because Marshall ruled that Congress had a set of “unenumerated powers not explicitly outlined in the Constitution” (McCulloch, 2015) and that Maryland could not tax entities of the Federal Government that were executed under constitutional powers (McCulloch, 2015). Thanks to Marshall’s opinion on Article I Section 8 Clause 18 (The Elastic Clause), anything necessary and proper for the enforcement of listed powers under Article I Section 8 was constitutional. Marshall, again, gave major power to the Federal government. Smith (2010) stated that the major decisions in this case formed the constant growth of the federal government through the use of implied

The Supreme Court ruled that under the clause, Congress had powers to regulate any part of commerce that crossed state lines. Since Gibbons v. Ogden, the Commerce Clause has provided Congress the foundation for comprehensive power over a mass of national issues (McBride, 2006). Gibbons v Ogden dealt with claims from rival steamboat franchises. Ogden received exclusive rights from New York to be the primary steamboat company to use the Hudson River between New York and New Jersey. Gibbons, another steamboat owner, didn’t feel as if Ogden can get exclusive rights. The case was brought to the Supreme Court where Marshall decided in the favor of Ogden that a state cannot grant exclusive rights because it violated the federal licensing act of 1793. As stated by McBride (2006), Gibbons v. Ogden set the stage for continued expansion of legislative power over commercial. After this case, Congress had ultimate authority over the states to regulate any aspect of their commerce that crossed state lines. More than any other case in Marshall’s Court, Gibbons v. Ogden set the period for the federal government's vast growth of power for centuries to