Eighteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution
Amendment XVIII (the
Eighteenth Amendment) of the
United States Constitution, along with the
Volstead Act (which defined "intoxicating liquors"), established
Prohibition in the
United States.
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Prohibition agents destroying barrels of alcohol. |
The Senate passed the amendment on
December 18 1917. The amendment was ratified on
January 16,
1919, having been approved by 36 states. It went into effect one year later on
January 16,
1920.
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.
The amendment was subsequently repealed by the
Twenty-First Amendment on
December 5 1933.
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"Prohibition enforced," as illustrated by a USPS stamp. |
:
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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National Archives: 18th Amendment*
CRS Annotated Constitution: 18th Amendment*
Prohibition of Alcohol in the U.S.*
Repeal of National Prohibition
