Learning Resources, Inc. v. Trump · ¶30

Article I, Section 8, of the Constitution sets forth the powers of the Legislative Branch. The first Clause of that provision specifes that “The Congress shall have Power To lay and collect Taxes, Duties, Imposts and Excises.” It is no accident that this power appears first. The power to tax was, Alexander Hamilton explained, “the most important of the authorities proposed to be conferred upon the Union.” The Federalist No. 33, pp. 202–203 (C. Rossiter ed. 1961). It is both a “power to destroy,” McCulloch v. Maryland, 4 Wheat. 316, 431 (1819), and a power “necessary to the existence and prosperity of a nation”—“the one great power upon which the whole national fabric is based.” Nicol v. Ames, 173 U. S. 509, 515 (1899).

preliminary print (page proof)
Source edition
Passage preview. Read in context for the complete text, notes and references.