What were 3 weak points in Sparta's government?

Weaknesses

Fundamentally, it comes down to their resistance to change. They denied the forces of change in their military, economy, and overall way of life. Only full citizens could be in the army. Yet, a citizen had to have the means pay a certain amount to maintain that status. If he couldn't, then he was kicked out. Take into account that over time land started becoming concentrated into the hands of a few wealthy elite. This led to massive shrinkage in the true citizen population over the decades. Around 244BC there were fewer than 700 citizens.

Even militarily, they started to lag behind. One notable example was the Battle of Leuctra where the Theban commander Epaminondas used a simple (though revolutionary at the time) echelon formation to utterly smash the Spartan army including killing their King in the fighting. This was the first time a Spartan army had been defeated by an enemy of equal strength. Epaminondas pulled the exact same trick several years later and once again beat the Spartan army who were still relying on their old tactics. This massive depletion of Spartan manhood was never really recovered in subsequent years.

Couple these defeats with the increasing fear of helot revolts due to the growth of the helot population and decline of the true citizens. This fear severely limited their foreign policy. There were plenty of lands to conquer in the aftermath of the 2nd Persian Invasion, but they Spartans had to keep a wary eye on the entire nation of peoples they enslaved and relied on to perform most non-soldierly tasks.

Explanation:

hope this helped:)

b) a state law could be declared illegal if it contradicted the constitution.

explanation:

the conflict of this case originated when james w. mcculloch, a cashier of the baltimore branch of the second bank of the united states that the congress had chartered in 1816, refused to pay a tax imposed by the maryland state.

in the case, the state of maryland appealed that the establishment of a second bank was unconstitutional since the constitution didn't say anything about granting that power to congress. however, the case determined that even if such right wasn't specifically stated in the constitution, it was part of the "implied powers" of the government enunciated in article i, section 8.

the case also eliminated maryland's legislation to impose taxes to a national bank, asserting that even though the states retained the power of taxation, the constitution's laws are supreme and can not be controlled by the states, therefore, if a state law contradicts the constitution, it should be declared illegal.

explanation:

it's not the readmission