“If the States May Tax One Instrument, Employed by the Government

“If the States may tax one instrument, employed by the government in the execution of its powers, they may tax any and every other instrument. They may tax the mail; they may tax the mint; they may tax patent rights; they may tax the papers of the custom-house; they may tax judicial process; they may tax all the means employed by the government, to an excess which would defeat all the ends of government. This was not intended by the American people. . . .
The Court has bestowed on this subject its most deliberate consideration. The result is a conviction 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. This is, we think, the unavoidable consequence of that supremacy which the constitution has declared.”
—Chief Justice John Marshall, McCulloch v. Maryland, 1819
-Which clause of the U.S.Constitution did the Supreme Court interpret in McCulloch v.Maryland as allowing Congress to create a national bank?

A) commerce-Consider This: While many have argued that the Court could have relied on commerce powers in McCulloch,the Court ultimately chose to use look elsewhere to justify the power.
B) necessary and proper
C) due process
D) equal protection