The federal government is acknowledged by all to be one of enumerated powers. The principle, that it can exercise only the powers granted to it . . . is now universally admitted.
Interpretation
The federal government has only the powers explicitly granted to it by the Constitution.
John Marshall emphasizes that the federal government operates under the principle of enumerated powers, meaning it can only exercise those powers that have been specifically granted to it, as outlined in the Constitution. This foundational concept limits governmental authority and is central to the framework of American governance, ensuring a balance of power and protecting individual freedoms.
In practice
In a debate about federal authority, one might reference this quote to highlight the limits of governmental power.
The particular phraseology of the Constitution of the United States confirms and strengthens the principle, supposed to be essential to all written constitutions, that a law repugnant to the Constitution is void; and that courts, as well as other departments, are bound by that instrument.
A corporation is an artificial being, invisible, intangible, and existing only in contemplation of law.
If the agency of the mother in forming the character of her children is, in truth, so considerable, as I think it - if she does so much toward making her son what she would wish him to be - how essential is it that she should be fitted for the beneficial performance of these important duties.
The constitution controls any legislative act repugnant to it.
The constitution is either a superior paramount law, unchangeable by ordinary means, or it is on a level with ordinary legislative acts, alterable when the legislature shall please to alter it. It is emphatically the province and duty of the judicial department to say what the law is. This is the very essence of judicial duty.
The government of the United States has been emphatically termed a government of laws, and not of men. It will certainly cease to deserve this high appellation, if the laws furnish no remedy for the violation of a vested legal right.
When we speak of the morrow nothing is ever certain.
… and so he tried to accept the ache in his heart as what Dr. Larch would call the common symptoms of normal life.
Whenever nature leaves a hole in a person's mind, she generally plasters it over with a thick coat of self-conceit.
Used to the conditions of a capitalistic environment, the average American takes it for granted that every year business makes something new and better accessible to him. Looking backward upon the years of his own life, he realizes that many implements that were totally unknown in the days of his youth and many others which at that time could be enjoyed only by a small minority are now standard equipment of almost every household.
A liberal to me is one who - and it suits some of the dictionary definitions - is unbeholden to any specific belief or party or group or person, but makes up his or her mind on the basis of the facts and the presentation of those facts at the time. That defines what I am.
Good books tell the truth, even when they're about things that never have been and never will be. They're truthful in a different way
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