John Marshall Federalism

Throughout U.S. History many different types of government were created in an attempt to govern and unify the people. One such government, federalism, divided the balance of power between the states and the national government. Federalism caused a lot of controversy throughout the history of the United States. One time period in which there were significant debates about federalism was the Supreme Court under John Marshall (1801-1835) due to his rulings based on his federalist views. The other time period was the Extension of Slavery (1820-1860) which also caused much debates between federalism and state rights. Landmark Supreme Court decisions involving federalism were decided in both of these time periods. John Marshall served in
John Marshall was once the leader of the Virginia Federalist Party. Between 1799 and 1800, he also served in the U.S. House of Representatives and was the Secretary of State under President Adams from 1800 to 1801. One of President Adams final judicial appointments was appointing John Marshall as Chief Justice of the Supreme Court in 1801. Many landmark cases involving federalism were decided during his term as Chief Justice. Under Justice Marshall’s rule, the Supreme Court made several key decisions that balanced the powers between the Federal and State governments. One landmark Supreme Court case was Fletcher v. Peck (1810). The court, under Justice Marshall, ruled that a state law was unconstitutional. This case was about a land grant that was approved by the Georgia State legislature, named the Yazoo Land Act of 1795. The land was taken away from the Native Americans. It was discovered that the grant was approved through bribery
Justice Marshall’s decision, in accordance with Article 1, Section 10, Clause 1, of the Constitution, was that a sale was a binding contract and wasn’t invalid even if the contract was secured illegally. This case resulted in the Supreme Court stating that they have the right to invalidate a state law that didn’t abide by the Constitution. Fletcher’s argument was that the State of Georgia had the sovereign power to repeal the grant of the land didn’t work. Justice Marshall’s decision was the first time the Supreme Court struck down a state law because it was unconstitutional. Another of Justice Marshall’s landmark Supreme Court cases was McCulloch v. Maryland (1819). The case resulted from an event in 1818 where the State of Maryland tried to place a tax on all bank notes not chartered in the State, specifically at the Second Bank of the U.S., which was the only out-of-state bank in Maryland. James William McCullough, head of the bank, refused to pay the tax. This case involved the power of Congress to charter a bank which caused a lot of controversy between the Federal and State Government since the Constitution didn’t mention who can charter a bank. Two important principles were