Implied Powers

Implied powers are governmental authorities not written out in the Constitution but reasonably drawn from powers that are. The idea took shape during the presidency of George Washington, when Alexander Hamilton defended the constitutionality of the First Bank of the United States against Thomas Jefferson and James Madison by arguing that the sovereign duties of a government imply the right to use means adequate to its ends, pointing to the Necessary and Proper Clause and the General Welfare Clause for that flexibility. The Supreme Court gave the doctrine formal recognition in McCulloch v. Maryland in 1819, when Chief Justice John Marshall held that Congress holds powers beyond those expressly listed. Congressional implied powers are generally traced to three constitutional sources, the Taxing and Spending Clause, the Necessary and Proper Clause, and the Commerce Clause, and operate by extending authority that follows logically from an express power even though that authority is never named outright.