The Court Promotes Economic Expansion
A few years after McCulloch v. Maryland, the Marshall Court heard another case involving state and federal power. Aaron Ogden, under New York law, held a monopoly on steamboat traffic on the Hudson River. Gibbons had a federal license to set up a competing line on this river. In Gibbons v. Ogden (1824), Marshall struck down the New York monopoly, ruling that only the federal government can regulate interstate commerce, which in this case broadly included river navigation.
In Dartmouth College v. Woodward (1819), Marshall ruled that the Constitution protected corporation's contracts from state interference. This decision shielded businesses enterprises and corporations from dominance by state governments. Although corporations still had to be individually chartered by states, corporations became significant agents in the economic growth that followed in the mid-nineteenth century.
The Marshall Court made several other decisions protecting property and limiting the power of states to interfere with business activity. In so doing, the judiciary promoted a climate that encouraged entrepreneurial enterprise.
Matching: Marshall
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