This Supreme Court case involved the President and Directors of the Bank of Washington, and Henry S. and Frederick S. Holford, administrators of James Holford, deceased (plaintiffs in error) versus The State of Arkansas, and Henry L. Briscoe, Sandford C Faulkner, and James H Wa (defendants). At issue was whether or not a state could tax a bank chartered by Congress under the United States Constitution's Supremacy Clause which states that federal law is supreme over any conflicting state laws. The plaintiffs argued that since their bank had been chartered by Congress it should be exempt from taxation as per Article 1 Section 8 clause 4 which grants to Congress exclusive power to charter banks within its jurisdiction; however they also argued that even if this were not true then taxing them would violate due process as guaranteed by Amendment 5 because it would amount to double taxation on property already taxed once at the federal level. Ultimately though the court ruled against them stating that while there may have been some constitutional issues with regards to double taxation these did not outweigh Arkansas' right to impose taxes on businesses operating within its borders so long as those taxes were applied equally across all entities regardless of origin or ownership structure.

In this case, the Supreme Court was asked to determine whether a state could tax a bank chartered by Congress. The majority opinion held that states had no power to tax banks chartered by Congress because it would interfere with the federal government's exclusive authority over interstate commerce and banking. However, in his dissent, Justice Curtis argued that while he agreed with the majority opinion on its interpretation of constitutional law, he disagreed with their conclusion regarding taxation. He argued that if states were not allowed to impose taxes on federally-chartered banks then they would be unable to raise revenue for public purposes such as roads and schools. Furthermore, Justice Curtis noted that there was nothing in either the Constitution or any other laws which explicitly prohibited states from taxing these institutions; thus it should be left up to each individual state’s discretion as long as it did not conflict with any federal laws or regulations.