McCulloch V. Maryland
Many landmark court cases were heard by the Supreme Court under Judge John
Marshall. Marshall handed down rulings that had huge effects back then and still have an effect
to this day. Without the rulings of Judge Marshall our country would look completely different.
One of the most influential cases was McCulloch v. Maryland, which was heard in 1819 during
The Panic of 1819. This economic recession led to many problems and the way these problems
were originally dealt with only led to more problems. According to oyez.org, in 1818 the state of
Maryland imposed taxes on The Second Bank of the United States (Oyez 2015). The tax was
meant to be a tax on those who lived within the state but did their banking elsewhere, however
they also attempted to tax the National Bank. The tax was essentially taxing all banks operating
in the state that were not chartered by the state. A cashier at the local Baltimore branch of the
National Bank, James W. McCulloch, refused to pay the tax on the bank. The state of Maryland
