Today I was FINALLY able to sleep in to 8 AM. I took a quick shower and got ready for class, I was excited because we would discuss the cases I had read the day before. I was planning on meeting people for breakfast at 9:15 AM so I spent a few minutes of my free time watching my new favorite television show "The Killing." At 9 I headed out to meet up with Margaret, Emily, and Valerie for some granola underneath the gazebo on campus. As a note, all the photos from today come from my evening excursion to the High Line park built on a decommissioned railroad line.
Emily and I left for class and we were excited to find out how well we understood the readings from the night before. I love the teaching methods and lesson plans in this college level course. At ECHS there are very few courses that I feel really prepares you for college. I was not used to the discussion and reading based aspects of the course, but I am learning so much more than I do from constant worksheets and textbooks. Already I feel like this class will be more work than most of my semester long courses were at ECHS. But at the same time I love the work! I think it is all fascinating and I was excited to find out Emily and I worked out the main points for all the readings we worked on together.
I already explained the basics of the case Marbury v. Madison so today I will talk about a different case that we discussed today: McCulloch v. Maryland. This case happened after Maryland tried to tax the Second Bank of the United Stares. One of the workers in the bank, McCulloch refused to pay the tax so he took it to the Supreme Court trying to prove that taxing the bank was unconstitutional. In the end Chief Justice John Marshall relayed the unanimous decision of the Supreme Court. The first question asked by the court was: did the Federal Government have the right to establish a national bank in the first place? In the end the court ruled that the bank was constitutional due to the "necessary and proper" clause in the Constitution. In order for the government to "lay and collect taxes; to borrow money; to regulate commerce," it is necessary that the government creates a bank. The second part of the case asked: did the state of Maryland had the right to tax the bank? In the end the court ruled that the state did not have the right to tax it. This was because the "supreme" clause in the Constitution makes the laws of the federal government trump the laws of the states when it comes down to the Constitution. Marshall claimed the "power to tax is the power to destroy" and taxing the bank was undermining (or destroying) the supreme power of the federal government therefore taxing the bank was unconstitutional. This case was so fascinating to wrap my head around and I left the class feeling like I had already learned so much!
In the evening I signed up for an excursion to the High Line. One of my top tens to see in New York this certainly was an excellent decision. Besides being totally free, the elevated park made for some awesome photographic opportunities of the city and its beautiful lights. I am slowly mastering the art of the blurred light photograph, one of which I will include on this blog above.
Today was such a fun and intellectual day. In class I felt so much more challenged intellectually than I normally do (which is great)! I am excited to discuss a few more Supreme Court decisions tomorrow!
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| I spent five minutes waiting to take this so I am extremely proud of this photograph. |
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