Eighteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution

Amendment XVIII in the National Archives

Prohibition agents destroying barrels of alcohol.

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 It is the only amendment to the Constitution that has been repealed (by the Twenty-first Amendment) (1933).

Text

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.

History

The amendment itself did not ban the actual consumption of alcohol, but made obtaining it legally difficult.

Following significant pressure on lawmakers as a result of 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. (Some 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 that a proposed amendment had a provision that placed a deadline on ratification. The validity of the amendment was challenged on that basis in Dillon v. Gloss; the Supreme Court ruled on the case in 1921, upholding the constitutionality of such deadlines.

Because of many Americans' dismay at the emergence 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 The amendment was subsequently repealed by the Twenty-First Amendment on December 5, 1933. It remains the only constitutional amendment to be repealed in its entirety.

Proposal and ratification

The House of Representatives initially passed the resolution calling for the Amendment on December 17, 1917. 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 thirty-six of the forty-eight states then in the Union had ratified it. On January 29, acting Secretary of State Frank L. Polk certified the ratification.

The following states ratified the amendment:

1. Mississippi (January 7, 1918)
2. Virginia (January 11, 1918)
3. Kentucky (January 14, 1918)
4. North Dakota (January 25, 1918)
5. South Carolina (January 29, 1918)
6. Maryland (February 13, 1918)
7. Montana (February 19, 1918)
8. Texas (March 4, 1918)
9. Delaware (March 18, 1918)
10. South Dakota (March 20, 1918)
11. Massachusetts (April 2, 1918)
12. Arizona (May 24, 1918)
13. Georgia (June 26, 1918)
14. Louisiana (August 3, 1918)
15. Florida (November 27, 1918)
16. Michigan (January 2, 1919)
17. Ohio (January 7, 1919)
18. Oklahoma (January 7, 1919)
19. Idaho (January 8, 1919)
20. Maine (January 8, 1919)
21. West Virginia (January 9, 1919)
22. California (January 13, 1919)
23. Tennessee (January 13, 1919)
24. Washington (January 13, 1919)
25. Arkansas (January 14, 1919)
26. Illinois (January 14, 1919)
27. Indiana (January 14, 1919)
28. Kansas (January 14, 1919)
29. Alabama (January 15, 1919)
30. Colorado (January 15, 1919)
31. Iowa (January 15, 1919)
32. New Hampshire (January 15, 1919)
33. Oregon (January 15, 1919)
34. Nebraska (January 16, 1919)
35. North Carolina (January 16, 1919)
36. Utah (January 16, 1919)
37. Missouri (January 16, 1919)
38. Wyoming (January 16, 1919)
39. Minnesota (January 17, 1919)
40. Wisconsin (January 17, 1919)
41. New Mexico (January 20, 1919)
42. Nevada (January 21, 1919)
43. New York (January 29, 1919)
44. Vermont (January 29, 1919)
45. Pennsylvania (February 25, 1919)
46. New Jersey (March 9, 1922)

The following states rejected the amendment:

1. Connecticut
2. Rhode Island

See also

• Prohibition
• Prohibition in the United States

External links

• The Constitution Of The United States Of America Analysis And Interpretation Analysis Of Cases Decided By The Supreme Court Of The United States To June 28, 2002, United States Senate doc. no. 108-17.
• National Archives: 18th Amendment
• CRS Annotated Constitution: 18th Amendment