Implied Powers (2024)

Federalism
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Implied powers, in the context of federalism, refer to powers Congress possesses that are not explicitly enumerated in the U.S. Constitution. Alexander Hamilton first articulated the concept of implied powers, which the U.S. Supreme Court later recognized in the 1819 case McCulloch v. Maryland.^[1][2]

Background

See also: McCulloch v. Maryland

During the late 1700s, George Washington requested that Alexander Hamilton defend the constitutionality of the First Bank of the United States against the criticism of Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, and Attorney General Edmund Randolph. Hamilton's resulting interpretation of Article 1, Section 8 of the U.S. Constitution established the doctrine of implied powers. Hamilton argued that the sovereign duties of a government imply the right to use means necessary to its ends.^[3]

In the 1819 U.S. Supreme Court case McCulloch v. Maryland, which concerned whether the United States had the authority to establish a federal bank without states imposing a tax, the court recognized the federal government's implied powers within the necessary and proper clause of Article 1, Section 8. The necessary and proper clause, according to Chief Justice John Marshall, gives Congress the power to pass laws deemed necessary and proper to facilitate the full exercise of the powers delegated to the federal government.^[2][4]

Some examples of the federal government's implied powers include:

• The creation of the Internal Revenue Service (IRS)
• The ability to use a military draft to raise an army
• The creation of a national minimum wage
• The regulation of firearms sale and possession^[3]

See also

• Federalism
• Federalist Papers
• Anti-Federalist papers
• McCulloch v. Maryland
• Necessary and proper clause

External links

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Footnotes