Did Chief Justice John Marshall believe in states' rights?

Answer 1

No. Chief Justice John Marshall was a member of the Federalist party who believed most power should reside with the federal government. He generally opposed state sovereignty, and invariably ruled in favor of the federal government in disputes against the states.

Marshall left a legacy of decisions that subordinated states rights and laws to Constitutional provisions (examples):

Fletcher v. Peck, 10 US 87 (1810)
This was the first case in which the Supreme Court declared a state law unconstitutional, when the State of Georgia repealed the Yazoo Land Act of 1795. Although the law had been passed illegally, as the result of bribes from private land developers to members of the state legislature, repealing the law could not invalidate subsequent sales of land or encumber deeds, per Article 1, Section 10 (Contract Clause) of the US Constitution.

McCulloch v. Maryland, 17 US 316 (1819)
The Supreme Court ruled that the Constitution allowed Congress to establish a national bank via the "necessary and proper clause," and that states could not tax federal agencies. Marshall commented that the "American people did not design to make their government dependent on the states." The decision in McCullochestablished the supremacy of the Constitution and federal law over state laws and powers.

Gibbons v. Ogden, 22 US 1 (1824)
Held that Congress had the power to regulate interstate commerce, even on navigable waters, under Article 1, Section 8 (Interstate Commerce Clause). This decision invalidated a New York state law that charged heavy fees to foreign (out-of-state) chartered riverboats had allowed New York transportation companies to create a monopoly in waters under New York jurisdiction.

Answer 2

Yes, Chief Justice Marshall believed in states' rights, but only as granted in the Constitution (this means your test answer should probably be "no,"). The Marshall Court ruled some cases in favor of the states, particular when the federal question involved enforcing the Bill of Rights against the states, which was only intended to apply to the federal government at that time.

For the most part, Marshall, a member of the Federalist party, believed in strengthening the central government and subordinating individual states' powers to the United States when conflicts arose. Marshall's rulings on the relationship between the two entities appear well grounded in contemporary constitutional theory (much of which was being interpreted for the first time). The state and federal government shared power, but when state statutes and policies were in conflict with the the US Constitution, the Constitution, Federal Laws, and negotiated treaties superseded state sovereignty, per the Supremacy Clause in Article VI.

Many of the cases during the Marshall era involved the separation of powers between branches and other various states and territories, problems that naturally arose in the early years of the United States.