<P> In Ware v. Hylton, 3 U.S. (3 Dall .) 199 (1796), the United States Supreme Court for the first time applied the Supremacy Clause to strike down a state statute . Virginia had passed a statute during the Revolutionary War allowing the state to confiscate debt payments by Virginia citizens to British creditors . The Supreme Court found that this Virginia statute was inconsistent with the Treaty of Paris with Britain, which protected the rights of British creditors . Relying on the Supremacy Clause, the Supreme Court held that the treaty superseded Virginia's statute, and that it was the duty of the courts to declare Virginia's statute "null and void". </P> <P> In Marbury v. Madison, 5 U.S. 137 (1803), the Supreme Court held that Congress cannot pass laws that are contrary to the Constitution, and it is the role of the Judicial system to interpret what the Constitution permits . Citing the Supremacy Clause, the Court found Section 13 of the Judiciary Act of 1789 to be unconstitutional to the extent it purported to enlarge the original jurisdiction of the Supreme Court beyond that permitted by the Constitution . </P> <P> In Martin v. Hunter's Lessee, 14 U.S. 304 (1816), and Cohens v. Virginia, 19 U.S. 264 (1821), the Supreme Court held that the Supremacy Clause and the judicial power granted in Article III give the Supreme Court the ultimate power to review state court decisions involving issues arising under the Constitution and laws of the United States . Therefore, the Supreme Court has the final say in matters involving federal law, including constitutional interpretation, and can overrule decisions by state courts . </P> <P> In McCulloch v. Maryland, 17 U.S. (4 Wheat .) 316 (1819), the Supreme Court reviewed a tax levied by Maryland on the federally incorporated Bank of the United States . The Court found that if a state had the power to tax a federally incorporated institution, then the state effectively had the power to destroy the federal institution, thereby thwarting the intent and purpose of Congress . This would make the states superior to the federal government . The Court found that this would be inconsistent with the Supremacy Clause, which makes federal law superior to state law . The Court therefore held that Maryland's tax on the bank was unconstitutional because the tax violated the Supremacy Clause . </P>

The supremacy clause in article vi of the constitution