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M'Culloch v. Maryland
McCulloch v. Maryland upholds the constitutionality of the Bank of the United States while striking a state tax meant to encumber it or drive it out of the state. The case comes to the Supreme Court appealing the decisions of Maryland courts requiring the Bank's cashier, McCulloch, to pay the tax; he claimed he was not legally obliged to pay because the tax was unconstitutional. The constitutional issues need to be decided in order to determine McCulloch's fate: If the Bank itself is unconstitutional, the state tax is not, and even if the Bank is constitutional, if the state tax is, too, McCulloch has to pay.
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