Week Two: McCulloch vs. Maryland (1819)
“The arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice.”
The latest Our American Values series focuses on the US Supreme Court and the role it has played in the struggle for civil rights. This new series has three parts. First, we look at two cases that established the principle of judicial review of actions by federal (1803) and state (1817) government. Second, we look at a series of Supreme Court cases decided between 1857 and 1944. These cases made it easier for governments to deny individuals their rights and so each made the moral arc of the universe a little longer. Finally, we look at a series of cases decided between 1886 and 1983 that moved America forward toward justice. For this new series, we draw on some very short (thirty second to four-minute videos) from C-SPAN Classroom.
The text of the McCulloch v. Maryland decision, as recorded in the minutes of the Supreme Court.
Like Marbury, McCulloch was not a civil rights case per se but the decision in this case established two important principles of Constitutional law that played important roles in the struggle for civil rights. First, that Congress has implied powers going beyond those specifically enumerated in the Constitution. Second, that the US Constitution is the ‘supreme Law of the Land; … any Thing in the … Laws of any State to the Contrary notwithstanding.’
Five short videos (two to four and a half minutes each) from C-SPAN classroom are available below. For a complete picture of this case and events leading up to it, start with the first video. To focus more narrowly on the arguments made and how the decision, in this case, affects American law to this day, play the fourth and fifth videos.