Can the Congress strike down unconstitutional state laws?

Factual Questions
1

In the Virginia Plan, as presented to the delegates during the Philadelphia Convention, the Congress was given the power to strike down unconstitutional state laws.

Does that law exist today? My friend and I are arguing about this. I say no, as the power to strike down unconstitutional state laws now exists through judicial review by the Supreme Court.

What happened to this part of the Viriginia Plan, and if it exists today, are there any examples of Congress striking down unconstitutional state laws?

Thanks.

2

You’re referring to the “Federal Veto”. The plan was that the Federal government would be able to negate any state law that it deemed unconstitutional. This proposal was voted down very quickly at the Constitutional Convention. The three biggest states (Virginia, Pennsylavania, and Massachusetts) voted for it and everybody else said no.

I believe that the Supreme Court didn’t declare any state law unconstitutional until McCullouch v. Maryland, which was around 1819 I think. The state of Maryland tried to collect a tax on deposits made in the Bank of the United States. The Marshall Court declared it unconstitutional and I think that settled the issue.

For the most part, the Constitution spells out what Congress can do and what the states can do. Not that there’s ever been disagreement over this matter.

3

Thanks for the info. Do you have any sources for your information?

I’m aware of the case of McCulloch v. Maryland.

Correct me if I’m wrong, but what you’re saying is this:
Madison included in the Virginia Plan that the Congress would have the right to strike down state laws that it deemed unconstitutional, but that was voted down at the Philadelphia Convention. That an accurate restatement?

4

I believe your synopsis is correct, KwikStah.

Since the Virgina Plan was one of several proposals made during the period of the Articles of Confederation preceding the adoption of the Constitution, I think it’s pretty safe to say that if you don’t find it in the Constitution, it did not make it into Federal Law.

You might like to check out the The American Constitution A Documentary Record from the The Avalon Project at the Yale Law School. Scroll toward the bottom and you’ll find three separate drafts of the Virginia Plan.

5

My source was Carl Van Doren’s “The Great Rehearsal”. I had it left over from a college class.

6

The Supreme Court first held that a federal statute was unconsistutional in Marbury v. Madison, 5 U.S. 137 (1803). It struck down a statute that purported to expand the original jurisdiction of the Supreme Court itself, as opposed to its appellate jurisdiction. Marshall C.J. for the Court held that the enumeration of the Court’s original jurisdiction in Article III, section 2, para. 2 of the Constitution could not be expanded by federal statute.

7

The Virgina Plan did propose to give the federal Congress the power to strike down state laws that conflicted with the new constitution, but the Convention eventually rejected the proposal, as summarised by Farrand in The Framing of the Constitution (1913, facsimile edition, p. 120):

In place of this provision, the Convention provided that the Constitution of the United States was to be supreme over the laws of the states, and the state courts were required to apply the federal Constitution over state laws in cases of conflict. (See Article VI).