Skip to main content

What was the significance of McCulloch v Maryland?

McCulloch v Maryland was an important court case. The question that needed to be decided was if a state could tax a federal institution such as the national bank. Maryland taxed the national bank. The bank’s cashier, James McCulloch, refused to pay the tax. Maryland then sued the national bank.


The Supreme Court ruled that a state couldn’t tax a federal institution. Therefore, the national bank didn’t have to pay the tax that Maryland imposed on it.


However, the ruling went much further. The Supreme Court ruled that a loose interpretation of the Constitution was legal. This would allow the federal government to do many things unless the Constitution specifically prevented the government from doing them. The ruling also reinforced the idea that federal laws take priority over state laws. This ruling significantly enhanced the power of the federal government.


McCulloch v Maryland was an important case that had far reaching consequences.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Is there a word/phrase for "unperformant"?

As a software engineer, I need to sometimes describe a piece of code as something that lacks performance or was not written with performance in mind. Example: This kind of coding style leads to unmaintainable and unperformant code. Based on my Google searches, this isn't a real word. What is the correct way to describe this? EDIT My usage of "performance" here is in regard to speed and efficiency. For example, the better the performance of code the faster the application runs. My question and example target the negative definition, which is in reference to preventing inefficient coding practices. Answer This kind of coding style leads to unmaintainable and unperformant code. In my opinion, reads more easily as: This coding style leads to unmaintainable and poorly performing code. The key to well-written documentation and reports lies in ease of understanding. Adding poorly understood words such as performant decreases that ease. In addressing the use of such a poorly ...
Post a Comment
Read more

Is 'efficate' a word in English?

I routinely hear the word "efficate" being used. For example, "The most powerful way to efficate a change in the system is to participate." I do not find entries for this word in common English dictionaries, but I do not have an unabridged dictionary. I have checked the OED (I'm not sure if it is considered unabridged), and it has no entry for "efficate". It does have an entry for "efficiate", which is used in the same way. Wordnik has an entry for "efficate" with over 1800 hits, thus providing some evidence for the frequency of use. I personally like the word and find the meaning very clear and obvious when others use it. If it's not currently an "officially documented" word, perhaps its continued use will result in it being better documented.
Post a Comment
Read more