| Article Six establishes the United States
Constitution and the laws and treaties of the
United States made in accordance with it as the supreme law of the land,
and fulfills other purposes.
See Wikisource (http://sources.wikipedia.org/pac/Constitution_of_the_United_States_of_America#Article_VI)
for the text of the Article.
Debts
The first clause of the Article provides that debts contracted prior to the adoption of the Constitution remain valid, as they
were under the Articles of Confederation.
Supremacy
Clause two provides that the Constitution, and laws and treaties made pursuant to it, constitute the supreme law of the land.
It provides that state courts are bound by the supreme law; in case of
conflict between federal and state law, the federal law must be upheld. Even state constitutions are subordinate to federal
law.
The Supreme Court under John Marshall was influential in construing
the supremacy clause. It first ruled that it had the power to review the decisions of state courts allegedly in conflict with the
supreme law, claims of "state sovereignty" notwithstanding. In Martin v. Hunter's Lessee (1816), the Supreme Court
confronted the Chief Justice of Virginia, Spencer Roane, who had previously
declared a Supreme Court decision unconstitutional and refused to permit the state courts to abide by it. The Court upheld the
Judiciary Act, which permitted it to hear appeals from state courts, on the grounds that Congress had passed it under the
supremacy clause.
The Supreme Court has also struck down attempts by states to control or direct the affairs of federal institutions.
McCulloch v. Maryland (1819) was a significant case in this regard. The state of Maryland had
levied a tax on banks not chartered by the state; the tax applied, state judges ruled, to the Bank of the United States chartered
by Congress in 1816. Marshall wrote that "the States have no power, by taxation or
otherwise, to retard, impede, burden, or in any manner control, the operations of the constitutional laws enacted by Congress to
carry into execution the powers vested in the general government." United States property is wholly immune to state taxation, as
are government activities and institutions. Congress may explicitly provide immunity from taxation in certain cases, for instance
by immunizing a federal contractor. Federal employees, however, may not be immunized from taxes, as the tax would not in any way
impede government activities.
Gibbons v. Ogden (1824) was another influential case involving the supremacy clause. The state of New York had granted Aaron Ogden a monopoly over the steamboat business in the Hudson River. The other party, Thomas Gibbons, had obtained a federal permit under the Coastal Licensing Act
to perform the same task. The Supreme Court upheld the federal permit. John Marshall wrote, "The nullity of an act, inconsistent
with the Constitution, is produced by the declaration, that the Constitution is the supreme law. The appropriate application of
that part of the clause which confers the same supremacy on laws and treaties, is to such acts of the State legislatures as do
not transcend their powers, but though enacted in the execution of acknowledged State powers, interfere with, or are contrary to
the laws of Congress, made in pursuance of the Constitution, or some treaty made under the authority of the United States. In
every such case, the act of Congress, or the treaty, is supreme; and the law of the State, though enacted in the exercise of
powers not controverted, must yield to it."
Oaths
Federal and state legislators, executive officers and judges are, by the third clause of the article, bound by oath or
affirmation to support the Constitution. Congress may determine the form of
such an oath. In Ex Parte Garland (1866), the Supreme Court held that a test oath would violate the Constitution, so it invalidated the law
requiring the following oath:
I, A. B., do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I have never voluntarily borne arms against the United States since I have
been a citizen thereof; that I have voluntarily given no aid, countenance, counsel, or encouragement to persons engaged in armed
hostility thereto; that I have neither sought nor accepted, not attempted to exercise the functions of any office whatever, under
any authority or pretended authority in hostility to the United States; that I have not yielded a voluntary support to any
pretended government, authority, power, or constitution with the United States, hostile or inimical thereto...
The Supreme Court found that law constituted an unconstitutional ex post facto law, for it retroactively punished the offenses mentioned in the oath by preventing
those who committed them from taking office.
Congress may not require religious tests for an office under the United States. Thus, Congress may include the customary words
"so help me God" in an oath, but an individual would be under no compulsion to utter them, as such a requirement would constitute
a religious test.
References
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