by John Marshall

“ Thus, a law establishing federal Courts in a particular State, is a law of the United States; for though its immediate operation is upon one State, yet it is in execution of a power co-extensive with the United States; but if a law, though passed by Congress, be passed in execution of a municipal power, as a law to pave the streets of Washington, then it cannot, in any propriety of language, be called a law of the United States. It is an axiom in politics, that legislative power has no operation, beyond the territorial limits under its authority. ”

“ The Court will maintain the powers of Congress as granted by the people, and for the purposes for which they were granted by the people; and will, if possible, to preserve harmony, prevent the clashing of federal and State powers. Let each operate within their respective spheres; and let each be confined to their assigned limits. We are all bound to support the constitution. How will that be best effected? Not by claiming and exercising unacknowledged power. The strength thus obtained will prove pernicious. The confidence of the people constitutes the real strength of this government. ”

“ The suability of the States might have been dispensed with, and the constitution still be safe. But the judicial control of the Union over State encroachments and usurpations, was indispensable to the sovereignty of the constitution-to its integrity-to its very existence. Take it away, and the Union becomes again a loose and feeble confederacy-a government of false and foolish confidence-a delusion and a mockery! Why is it in cases, in which individuals are parties in a State Court, that the judgment may be revised in this Court? ”

“ The powers of the Union, on the great subjects of war, peace, and commerce, and on many others, are in themselves limitations of the sovereignty of the States; but in addition to these, the sovereignty of the States is surrendered in many instances where the surrender can only operate to the benefit of the people, and where, perhaps, no other power is conferred on Congress than a conservative power to maintain the principles established in the constitution. The maintenance of these principles in their purity, is certainly among the great duties of the government. ”

“ America has chosen to be, in many respects, and to many purposes, a nation; and for all these purposes, her government is complete; to all these objects, it is competent. The people have declared, that in the exercise of all powers given for these objects, it is supreme. It can, then, in effecting these objects, legitimately control all individuals or governments within the American territory. The constitution and laws of a State, so far as they are repugnant to the constitution and laws of the United States, are absolutely void. ”

“ That the United States form, for many, and for most important purposes, a single nation, has not yet been denied. In war, we are one people. In making peace, we are one people. In all commercial regulations, we are one and the same people. In many other respects, the American people are one; and the government which is alone capable of controlling and managing their interests in all these respects, is the government of the Union. It is their government, and in that character they have no other. ”

“ If, upon a just construction of that instrument, it shall appear that the State has submitted to be sued, then it has parted with this sovereign right of judging in every case on the justice of its own pretensions, and has entrusted that power to a tribunal in whose impartiality it confides.
The American States, as well as the American people, have believed a close and firm Union to be essential to their liberty and to their happiness. They have been taught by experience, that this Union cannot exist without a government for the whole ”

“ Thus, Congress authorized the people of Missouri to form a constitution, and govern themselves. Is this a transfer of power? No, certainly: it is an authority to exercise the inherent power of the people in governing themselves. Congress may authorize the people of Washington, or the people of Arkansas, to govern themselves; but it was never heard, until this case arose, that a local Corporation, authorized by Congress to legislate for themselves, could pass laws of obligation throughout the Union: laws paramount in the States to the laws of the States. ”

“ What power of the government could be executed by its own means, in any State disposed to resist its execution by a course of legislation? The laws must be executed by individuals acting within the several States. If these individuals may be exposed to penalties, and if the Courts of the Union cannot correct the judgments by which these penalties may be enforced, the course of the government may be, at any time, arrested by the will of one of its members. ”

“ Without inquiring how far the union of different characters in one Court, may be applicable, in principle, to the union in Congress of the power of exclusive legislation in some places, and of limited legislation in others, it may be observed, that the forms of proceedings in a Court of law are so totally unlike the forms of proceedings in a Court of equity, that a mere inspection of the record gives decisive information of the character in which the Court sits, and consequently of the extent of its powers. ”

“ An act, such as that under consideration, ought not, we think, to be so construed as to imply this intention, unless its provisions were such as to render the construction inevitable.
We do not think it essential to the corporate power in question, that it should be exercised out of the City. Could the lottery be drawn in any State of the Union? Does the corporate power to authorize the drawing of a lottery imply a power to authorize its being drawn without the jurisdiction of a Corporation, in a place where it may be prohibited by law? ”

“ And what clear legal distinction can be taken between a power to draw a lottery in a place where it is prohibited by law, and a power to establish an office for the sale of tickets in a place where it is prohibited by law? It may be urged, that the place where the lottery is drawn is of no importance to the Corporation, and therefore the act need not be so construed as to give power over the place, but that the right to sell tickets throughout the United States is of importance, and therefore ought to be implied. ”

“ Whenever the States shall be determined to destroy the federal government, they will not find it necessary to act, and to act in violation of the constitution. They can quietly and effectually accomplish the purpose by not acting. Upon the State legislatures it depends to appoint the Senators and Presidential electors, or to provide for their election. Let them merely not act in these particulars; the executive department, and part of the legislative, ceases to exist, and the federal government thus perishes by a sin of omission, not of commission. ”

“ Lottery tickets are an article of commerce, vendible in every part of the Union, as well as in the District of Columbia. A State law which forbids a citizen to sell or buy a ticket in a lottery, legally established by the national legislature, for national purposes, infringes the constitutional rights of the citizen, and tends to impede and defeat the exercise of this national power. He cannot be punished by a State, for selling or buying that which Congress has, in the exercise of a great national power, authorized to be bought or sold. ”

“ But if any one State shall refuse to elect them, the Senate will not, on that account, be the less capable of performing all its functions. The argument founded on this fact would seem rather to prove the subordination of the parts to the whole, than the complete independence of any one of them. The framers of the constitution were, indeed, unable to make any provisions which should protect that instrument against a general combination of the States, or of the people, for its destruction ”

“ The citizen who has paid his money to his State, under a law that is void, is in the same situation with every other person who has paid money by mistake. The law raises an assumpsit to return the money, and it is upon that assumpsit that the action is to be maintained. To refuse to comply with this assumpsit may be no more a violation of the constitution, than to refuse to comply with any other; and as the federal Courts never had jurisdiction over contracts between a State and its citizens, they may have none over this. ”

“ When the federal Courts declare an act of a State legislature unconstitutional, or an act of the State executive unlawful, they exercise no higher authority than the State Courts exercise, who will not only declare an act of the State legislature, but even an act of Congress, unconstitutional and void. ”