Maryland DBQ Resources. McCulloch v. Maryland at the Oyez Project; Activity. It was 1819 and the United States had been a nation under the Constitution for barely a generation when an important case about federal power reached the Court. After a first attempt in 1791, Congress established the second National Bank of the United States in 1816. read more
The decision in McCulloch v. Maryland, (1819) established two important principles: 1) The Constitution allowed branches of the federal government to exercise implied powers not explicitly enumerated in the document (but likewise, not explicitl y prohibited); and 2) The Supremacy Clause prevented the states from imposing their will on the federal government because federal and constitutional law supersede all other laws. read more