John Marshall

      While he was on the bench, there were many important cases considered by the court. Three major principles that that these famous cases involved were contract rights protection, the supremacy of federal legislation over the laws of the states, and regulation of interstate commerce. In the contract rights case of Fletcher v. Peck, members of the Georgia legislature were bribed to sell thirty-five million acres in Mississippi for a small amount to private speculators. The following year, a new Georgia legislature rescinded the sale.
      In another case, the state of New Hampshire tried to alter Dartmouth College's charter. A New Hampshire court tried to change it from a private to a public institution. It was ruled that the charter could not be changed. In Martin v. Hunter's Lessee, the state of Virginia confiscated land owned by a British Loyalist names Denny Martin Fairfax. Virginia gave 800 acres of the confiscated lands to David Hunter. Denny Martin Fairfax was trying to get his land back. The Supreme Court and Justice Marshall overruled the Virginia court, declaring that the land belonged to Fairfax and took the land away from Hunter.
      Many people say that McCulloch v. Maryland the John Marshall's most important case while Supreme Court Chief Justice. It dealt with the division of power between the federal government and the states. The state of Maryland placed an annual tax on the Bank of the United States and other "foreign" banks in order to protect its local banks. The Maryland branch of the Bank of the United States refused to pay, and Maryland bought suit against the chief bank emplouee called the "head cashier," John W. McCulloch. Marshall upheld the constitutionality of the Bank of the United States. Since the bank was legal, the tax was unconstitutional and Maryland lost its case.