Federalism--including its meanings and limits--remains one of the
most contested principles in constitutional law. To fully
understand its importance, we must turn to a landmark decision
nearly two centuries old. M'Culloch v. Maryland (1819) is widely
regarded as the Supreme Court's most important and influential
decision-one that essentially defined the nature and scope of
federal authority and its relationship to the states. Mark
Killenbeck's sharply insightful study helps us understand why.
Killenbeck recounts how the cashier of the Baltimore branch of
the Second Bank of the United States refused to pay Maryland's tax
on the bank and how that act precipitated a showdown in the Supreme
Court, which addressed two questions: whether the U.S. Congress had
the authority to establish a national bank and whether Maryland's
tax on the bank was barred by the Constitution. In one of Chief
Justice John Marshall's most famous opinions, the Court unanimously
answered yes to both, authorizing the federal government to
exercise powers not expressly articulated in the Constitution--and
setting an alarming precedent for states--rights advocates.
The issues at the heart of M'Culloch are as important today as
they were then: the nature and scope of federal constitutional
authority, the division of authority between federal and state
governments, and the role of the Supreme Court in interpreting and
applying the Constitution. Situating the case within the protracted
debate about the bank and about federal-state relations, the Panic
of 1819, the fate of the Second Bank following the Court's
momentous decision, and the ever-expanding and increasingly
contentious debate over slavery, Killenbeck's book provides a
virtual constitutional history of the first fifty years of the
nation. As such, it shows that the development of the Constitution
as a viable governing document took place over time and that
M'Culloch, with its very broad reading of federal power, marked a
turning point for the Constitution, the Court, and the nation.
As the Court continues to reshape the boundaries of federal
power, M'Culloch looms large as a precedent in a debate that has
never been fully settled. And as states today grapple with such
questions as abortion, gay rights, medical marijuana, or assisted
suicide, this book puts that precedent in perspective and offers a
firm grasp of its implications for the future.
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