# McCulloch v. Maryland **Status: stub — expand.** **Decided March 6, 1819 · unanimous · Marshall, C.J.** The foundational federalism case. Two holdings. First, Congress had power to charter the Second Bank of the United States even though no enumerated power says so, because the [[Necessary and Proper Clause]] supplies "all means which are appropriate, which are plainly adapted" to a legitimate end — "necessary" meaning useful, not indispensable. Second, Maryland could not tax the Bank, because "the power to tax involves the power to destroy" and a state may not tax an instrument of the federal government. The opinion's structural argument matters as much as its holdings: the Constitution derives from the people, not from the states as sovereign parties, so it is not a compact the states may construe or nullify. That reasoning is the direct answer to [[Nullification]] doctrine. Marshall also noted that the [[Tenth Amendment]], unlike the Articles of Confederation, omits the word "expressly" — the textual basis for reading it as a truism rather than a limit. ## See also - [[Necessary and Proper Clause]] · [[Supremacy Clause]] · [[Federalism Powers Crosswalk]]