Eighteenth Amendment: Prohibition

The Eighteenth Amendment, which prohibited alcohol in the United States, emerged directly from the Temperance Movement. This movement aimed to reduce the consumption of alcohol by the American populace. Consequently, the amendment outlawed the production, distribution, and sale of alcoholic drinks nationwide.

Ratification of the 18th Amendment kicked off the Prohibition Era in American history, setting the stage for a new wave of organized crime.

Historical Context

The push for a nationwide prohibition of alcohol was part of a more significant progressive push to shape the moral fabric of American life. Proponents of the Temperance Movement believed there was a causal link between alcohol consumption and social ills such as poverty.

The movement successfully pushed for prohibition laws on the local and state levels, and by 1893, proponents created the national Anti-Saloon League.

The National Prohibition Act

The Temperance Movement’s push for a constitutional amendment was successful. Congress passed the 18th Amendment in 1918, with ratification completed in 1919. Although the states quickly ratified the Amendment, it did not have an enforcement mechanism.

Later that year, Congress enacted the Volstead Act, named after Andrew Volstead, the Chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, overriding President Woodrow Wilson's veto. The act granted the Treasury Department enforcement power, which it utilized to appoint prohibition agents.

What the Eighteenth Amendment Says

"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.

The Congress and the several States shall have concurrent power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation.

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."

Analysis and Interpretation

Hawke v. Smith is a U.S. Supreme Court case that solidified the constitutionality of the 18th Amendment. In Hawke, a group of Ohio voters challenged the constitutionality of the Prohibition Amendment. All amendments to the Constitution of the United States require ratification by two-thirds of the states through respective state legislatures. Ohio's state constitution allowed for a referendum on any Constitutional Amendment ratified by the Ohio legislature.

After the Ohio legislature ratified the Eighteenth Amendment, the Ohio Secretary of State began preparations for a referendum. The Hawke petitioners sued the Ohio Secretary of State, questioning the validity of Ohio's law.

The Supreme Court held that Ohio law requiring a referendum on the Prohibition Amendment was unconstitutional. The Court's ruling likely closed off similar avenues to invalidating the Eighteenth Amendment.

Repealing the Eighteenth Amendment

Prohibition laws did little to eradicate the sale and consumption of alcohol completely. Instead, citizens found creative and illegal ways around Prohibition. Bootlegging, the unlawful manufacture, transport, and sale of alcoholic beverages, grew during this Era. Speakeasies, establishments that (illegally) sold alcohol, proliferated during this time.

The Prohibition Era also gave rise to a new era in crime as citizens found creative ways around this new amendment. Many people call this Era the "Roaring Twenties." The Prohibition Era lasted from 1919 until 1933.

Congress passed the Twenty-First Amendment in 1933, explicitly repealing the Prohibition Amendment. Notably, this was the first instance of using a constitutional amendment to repeal a different amendment of the U.S. Constitution.