Set 3 — Marshall Court, Federalism, Taney & Court Limits

Vocabulary flashcards covering key Supreme Court cases, doctrines, and constitutional interpretations from Marshall to Taney.

Fletcher v. Peck (1810)

A landmark Supreme Court case stemming from a corrupt Georgia land sale of 35 million acres, which held that states could not retroactively void private contracts.

Contract Clause

The clause in the Constitution first applied by Marshall in Fletcher v. Peck to protect private property rights against majority will.

McCulloch v. Maryland (1819)

A landmark case where the Supreme Court held that Congress had the implied power to create a national bank and that Maryland could not tax it, affirming federal supremacy.

McCulloch Test for Valid Implied Power

A legal standard establishing that the means chosen by Congress must be plainly adapted to a legitimate constitutional end and not prohibited by the Constitution.

Marshall's Interpretation of 'Necessary'

A broad construction defining 'necessary' as useful and convenient, rejecting Maryland's narrow reading of vital and indispensable.

The Power to Tax is the Power to Destroy

A principle from McCulloch v. Maryland establishing that a state may not use its taxation power to destroy a valid federal institution.

Gibbons v. Ogden (1824)

A Supreme Court case that struck down a New York steamboat-monopoly license in favor of a federal 1793 coastal licensing act, broadly defining federal commerce power.

Marshall's Definition of Commerce

Defined in Gibbons v. Ogden as including navigation and commercial intercourse in all its branches, rather than being limited to buying and selling.

Plenary Commerce Power

The characterization of Congress's authority over interstate commerce in Gibbons v. Ogden as complete, unqualified, and exclusive.

Wilson v. Black Bird Creek Marsh Co. (1829)

A decision holding that a state dam blocking a navigable creek stood because Congress had not legislated on it, demonstrating Marshall did not always push nationalist power when Congress was silent.

New York Passenger Cases

Cases concerning a New York law requiring ship captains to list immigrant passengers and pay fees, which the Taney Court upheld as an exercise of state police power.

State Police Power (Taney Court)

The plenary, complete, unqualified, and exclusive jurisdiction that states hold over persons and things within their territory.

Justice Story's Dissent

The dissent in the New York Passenger Cases that represented the Marshallian nationalist constitutional view against the Taney Court's states' rights orientation.

Luther v. Borden (1848)

A case arising from competing Rhode Island state governments where the Court declined to decide which government was legitimate under Article IV, Section 4.

Political-Question Doctrine

A judicial doctrine originating from Luther v. Borden where the Court defers non-justiciable issues—such as defining a 'republican form of government'—to Congress and the President.

Colegrove v. Green (1946)

A Supreme Court case that treated challenges to congressional-district lines as a non-justiciable political question.

Baker v. Carr (1962)

A landmark case holding that congressional-district line challenges are justiciable, moving away from previous political-question treatment.

Cherokee Cases

Rulings where Chief Justice Marshall declared Georgia's seizure of Cherokee treaty lands illegal, but President Andrew Jackson refused to enforce the decisions.

Dred Scott v. Sanford (1857)

A Supreme Court decision striking down the Missouri Compromise and holding that Congress could not restrict slavery in the territories, marking the first use of judicial review against Congress since Marbury v. Madison.