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Amendment XVIII (the Eighteenth Amendment) of the United States Constitution, along with the Volstead Act (which defined "intoxicating liquors" excluding those used for religious purposes and sales throughout the U.S.), established Prohibition in the United States. Its ratification was certified on January 16, 1919. It is the only amendment to the Constitution that has been repealed (by the Twenty-first Amendment) (1933).
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| “ | Section 1. After one year from the ratification of this article the manufacture, sale, or transportation of intoxicating liquors within, the importation thereof into, or the exportation thereof from the United States and all territory subject to the jurisdiction thereof for beverage purposes is hereby prohibited.
Section 2. The Congress and the several States shall have concurrent power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation. Section 3. This article shall be inoperative unless it shall have been ratified as an amendment to the Constitution by the legislatures of the several States, as provided in the Constitution, within seven years from the date of the submission hereof to the States by the Congress. |
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The amendment did not ban the consumption of alcohol, but made it difficult to obtain legally.
Following significant pressure on lawmakers from the temperance movement, the House of Representatives passed the amendment on December 18, 1917. It was certified as ratified on January 16, 1919, having been approved by 36 states. It went into effect one year after ratification, on January 17, 1920. (Many state legislatures had already enacted statewide prohibition prior to the ratification of the Eighteenth Amendment.)
When Congress submitted this amendment to the states for ratification, it was the first time a proposed amendment contained a provision placing a deadline for its ratification. The validity of that clause of the amendment was challenged and reached the Supreme Court, which ruled in the case of Dillon v. Gloss in 1921 and upheld the constitutionality of such a deadline.
Because many Americans attempted to evade the restrictions of Prohibition, there was a considerable growth in organized crime in the United States in response to public demand for illegal alcohol. The amendment was repealed by the Twenty-First Amendment on December 5, 1933. It remains the only constitutional amendment to be repealed in its entirety.[1]
On August 1, 1917, the Senate passed a resolution containing the language of the amendment to be presented to the states for ratification by a vote of 65 to 20, with the Democrats voting 36 in favor and 12 in opposition and the Republicans voting 29 in favor and 8 in opposition. The House of Representatives passed the resolution[2] on December 17, 1917. In that chamber the vote was 282 to 128, with the Democrats voting 146 in favor and 64 in opposition and the Republicans voting 137 in favor and 62 in opposition.[3] It was officially proposed by Congress when the Senate passed the resolution the next day, December 18.
Ratification was completed on January 16, 1919, when Nebraska became the thirty-sixth of the forty-eight states then in the Union to ratify it. On January 29, acting Secretary of State Frank L. Polk certified the ratification.[4]
The following states ratified the amendment:[5]
The following states rejected the amendment:
To define the language used in the Amendment, Congress enacted enabling legislation called the National Prohibition Act, better known as the Volstead Act, on October 28, 1919. President Wilson vetoed that bill, but the House immediately voted to override the veto and the Senate voted similarly the next day. The Volstead Act set the starting date for nationwide prohibition for January 17, 1920.[3]
   | Prohibition of Alcohol in the U.S. - National Prohibition of Alcohol in the U.S. |
| | National Archives: 18th Amendment - Charters of Freedom - The Declaration of Independence, The Constitution, The Bill of Rights |
| | CRS Annotated Constitution: 18th Amendment - CRS/LII Annotated Constitution Eightteenth Amendment -- Table of Contents |
| | Repeal of National Prohibition - Repeal of National Prohibition |
| | Ratification of Constitutional Amendments - Ratification of Constitutional Amendments - The U.S. Constitution Online - USConstitution.net |
| | link title - Example Web Page |
| | National Archives: 18th Amendment - Charters of Freedom - The Declaration of Independence, The Constitution, The Bill of Rights |
| | Duke University News & Communications, "Amend with Care" (2006) - Amend with Care |
| | Neil S. Siegel, "Beware the anti-freedom amendment" (2006) - Beware the anti-freedom amendment - Columns - News & Observer |
| | United States Constitution at the Connecticut General Assembly Website (see the history section for Article XVIII) - PREFACE TO THE DECLARATION OF IN |
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