Constitutional Opinion No. 2026-0773
Case Information
- Content Scored
- McCulloch v. Maryland, 17 U.S. 316 (1819)
- Source
- Supreme Court of the United States, U.S. Reports Vol. 17 (4 Wheaton)
- Author
- Chief Justice John Marshall (opinion of the Court)
- Publication Date
- 1819-02-01
- Content Type
- Judicial Opinion / Legal-Normative Text
- Opinion Issued
- 2026-07-20
- AFCS Version
- 1.0
Holding
The most genuinely divided case the Standard has scored, earning a divided verdict because its two great holdings pull the Standard's commitments in opposite directions. First, implied powers: Congress may incorporate a national bank though no clause names the power, because the Necessary and Proper Clause reaches means adapted to enumerated ends -- "Let the end be legitimate... and all means which are appropriate, which are plainly adapted to that end, which are not prohibited, but consist with the letter and spirit of the constitution, are constitutional." Second, supremacy: "the government of the Union, though limited in its powers, is supreme within its sphere of action," so a state may not tax a federal instrument -- "the power to tax involves the power to destroy." On the second the Standard is largely aligned: protecting national institutions from destruction by a hostile state is the union-preserving principle credited in the anti-nullification cases (Article XVIII), resting on popular sovereignty (Article II) and an enduring constitution (Article XVII). But on the first the Standard records a serious tension it will not soften for the opinion's fame: the broad Necessary-and-Proper reading is the doctrinal fountainhead of expansive federal power the twelfth article -- Limits of Washington -- exists to watch; more federal authority rests on the "appropriate means" formula than on any other sentence in the Reports (Article XII). Tempered, not erased: Marshall affirmed the government remained "one of enumerated powers" and "limited in its powers," required a legitimate enumerated END and adapted, not-prohibited means -- not a blank check by its terms, though capacious in application. Scored as Legal/Normative text (85/15). Tier 1 nets to 66; the result is 70 -- Mostly America First: a divided verdict for a divided case. The supremacy is credited; the expansion of federal power is flagged. Principle scored, not result.
It is the judgment of this Court that Opinion No. 2026-0773 is hereby entered into the record, in accordance with the America First Constitutional Standard. The score stands. The reasoning is published. The record is public.