An Overview of the 18th Amendment

What is the 18th Amendment?

“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.

Section4. Cases relating to this question are presented and discussed under Article V.

Enforcement Cases produced by enforcement and arising under the Fourth and Fifth Amendments are considered in the discussion appearing under those Amendments.”

The 18th Amendment Defined

Date Proposed

The 18th Amendment was proposed on August 1st, 1917

Date Passed

The 18th Amendment was passed of January 16th, 1919

President of the United States

Woodrow Wilson was the President of the United States during the ratification of the 18th Amendment

Stipulations of the 18th Amendment

The 18th Amendment imposed a legislative statute entitled Prohibition, which limited the consumption of alcohol to a small amount of circumstances; however, the ownership, sale, or possession of alcohol was considered to be illegal

The 18th Amendment was due in part to a response from lobbying undertaken by the Temperance Movement – a social activist group promoting the cessation of mass-availability of alcohol within the United States

18th Amendment Facts

The Volstead Act (The National Prohibition Act), which was a legislative act passed defining and classification alcoholic beverages in the wake of the 18th Amendment, instituted a nationwide prohibition of alcoholic beverages effective January 17th, 1920

Due to the prohibition expressed within the 18th Amendment, clandestine institutions providing the illegal disbursement of alcohol emerged – these operations were commonly referred to as ‘Speakeasies’

States Ratifying the 18th Amendment

1. Alabama

2. Arizona

3. Arkansas

4. California

5. Colorado

6. Delaware

7. Florida

8. Georgia

9. Idaho

10. Illinois

11. Indiana

12. Iowa

13. Kansas

14. Kentucky

15. Louisiana

16. Maine

17. Maryland

18. Massachusetts

19. Michigan

20. Minnesota

21. Mississippi

22. Missouri

23. Montana

24. Nebraska

25. Nevada

26. New Hampshire

27. New Jersey

28. New Mexico

29. New York

30. North Carolina

31. North Dakota

32. Ohio

33. Oklahoma

34. Oregon

35. Pennsylvania

36. South Carolina

37. South Dakota

38. Tennessee

39. Texas

40. Utah

41. Vermont

42. Virginia

43. Washington

44. West Virginia

45. Wisconsin

46. Wyoming

States Not Participatory in the Ratification of the 18th Amendment

1. Connecticut

2. Rhode Island

Statutes Associated with the 18th Amendment

The 21st Amendment of the Constitution of the United States served to repeal the 18th Amendment; the 21st Amendment was a direct response to Prohibition – the 21st Amendment allowed for individual state Governments to regulate commercial activity with regard to alcoholic beverages

NEXT: Nineteenth Amendment