Prohibition (Eighteenth Amendment)

Prohibition (Eighteenth Amendment)
Name	Eighteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution
Enacted	January 16, 1919
Ratified	January 16, 1919
Repealed	December 5, 1933
Repealed by	Twenty-first Amendment
Purpose	Prohibition of intoxicating liquors
Associated acts	Volstead Act

Contents

Prohibition (Eighteenth Amendment)

The Eighteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution instituted national prohibition of the manufacture, sale, and transportation of intoxicating liquors, culminating from campaigns by the Temperance movement, Anti-Saloon League, and Women's Christian Temperance Union. It interacted with legislation such as the National Prohibition Act (commonly the Volstead Act), and affected public figures and institutions including President Woodrow Wilson, President Warren G. Harding, President Calvin Coolidge, President Herbert Hoover, and later President Franklin D. Roosevelt. The measure influenced urban centers like New York City and Chicago and rural regions such as Appalachia and the Midwest while intersecting with movements and entities including the Social Gospel movement, Industrial Workers of the World, Ku Klux Klan, and the Suffrage movement.

Background and Constitutional Adoption

Support for constitutional prohibition arose from 19th- and early 20th-century campaigns led by organizations such as the Anti-Saloon League, Women's Christian Temperance Union, Prohibition Party, and reformers like Carrie Nation, Frances Willard, and Wayne Wheeler. State-level actions in Maine, Kansas, Oklahoma, and North Dakota created precedents that informed federal strategy during the Progressive Era and the aftermath of World War I. Key congressional actors included Senator Morris Sheppard and Representative Andrew Volstead, and debates in the Sixty-Fifth United States Congress reflected tensions between lawmakers allied with American Temperance Alliance supporters, urban political machines like Tammany Hall, and ethnic constituencies in cities such as Boston, Philadelphia, and St. Louis. Ratification involved state legislatures in Alabama, Georgia, California, and New York State Senate dynamics, with final ratification formalized while Secretary of State Bainbridge Colby officiated procedures.

The Amendment's text, proposed by Congress and ratified by state legislatures, prohibited the "manufacture, sale, or transportation of intoxicating liquors" and delegated enforcement to federal and state authorities. Implementing legislation—the National Prohibition Act or Volstead Act—defined "intoxicating liquors" and established penalties enforced by agencies such as the Internal Revenue Service (United States), the United States Department of Justice, and local police departments including forces in Chicago Police Department and New York City Police Department. Enforcement employed search warrants under precedents from cases argued before the Supreme Court of the United States and involved federal prosecutions in districts like the Southern District of New York. Judges such as Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr. and Louis Brandeis influenced jurisprudence while congressional oversight involved committees chaired by figures like Henry Cabot Lodge. Smuggling and evasion exploited ports near New Orleans, Galveston, Texas, and San Francisco, and methods connected to networks involving individuals associated with Al Capone and businesses in Cleveland, Ohio and Detroit. International dimensions invoked the Prohibition movement's relationships with British temperance societies and cross-border issues with Canada–United States border jurisdictions.

Prohibition reshaped urban culture in neighborhoods of New York City, Chicago, Los Angeles, and New Orleans, stimulating illicit economies and nightlife centered on venues such as speakeasies frequented by patrons linked to entertainers like Al Jolson and writers such as F. Scott Fitzgerald and Edna St. Vincent Millay. Organized crime syndicates tied to Al Capone, Meyer Lansky, Bugsy Siegel, and Lucky Luciano expanded into bootlegging, gambling, and vice operations, confronting law enforcement agencies including the Federal Bureau of Investigation under directors like J. Edgar Hoover. Economic effects touched breweries and distilleries such as Anheuser-Busch and Pabst Brewing Company, agricultural producers in the Great Plains, and transport firms operating along the Erie Canal and rail corridors managed by lines like the Pennsylvania Railroad. Public health outcomes involved debates among medical authorities at institutions such as Johns Hopkins University and Harvard Medical School and attracted attention from philanthropies including the Rockefeller Foundation. Social movements including labor unions like the American Federation of Labor and civil rights organizations such as the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People reacted to enforcement patterns that disproportionately affected communities in Harlem and immigrant neighborhoods in Cleveland and Milwaukee.

Legal contestation reached the Supreme Court of the United States in cases invoking constitutional questions about federal power, commerce, and due process, with opinions authored by justices including William Howard Taft (as Chief Justice later serving) and litigated by advocates connected to organizations like the American Civil Liberties Union. Congressional responses involved amendments, oversight hearings chaired by lawmakers such as Senator Robert M. La Follette Sr. and debates in the House Judiciary Committee. State initiatives in Michigan, Ohio, Indiana, and Wisconsin produced varied enforcement statutes and court rulings; litigants included businesses like Schlitz Brewing Company challenging regulatory definitions. Political actors including Al Smith and Herbert Hoover shaped national discourse, while referenda and ballot initiatives in states like California and Nevada tested popular sentiment leading to legal adjustments and exemptions addressing medicinal and sacramental uses recognized by institutions such as the Roman Catholic Church and Reformed Church in America.

Repeal came with ratification of the Twenty-first Amendment in December 1933 during the administration of Franklin D. Roosevelt, following electoral realignments that involved the Democratic National Committee, candidates like Franklin D. Roosevelt and Al Smith, and state legislatures in Utah, Colorado, and New Jersey. The transition reshaped regulatory frameworks with state liquor control boards established in jurisdictions such as Pennsylvania Liquor Control Board and California Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control, influenced tax policy debates in the United States Congress and fiscal recovery measures under the New Deal. Long-term consequences affected cultural production by authors and filmmakers including Ernest Hemingway, John Steinbeck, and directors associated with Warner Bros.; law-enforcement reform involved the Federal Bureau of Investigation and municipal police departments, and public health policy incorporated lessons taken up by Centers for Disease Control and Prevention successors. The repeal era realigned political coalitions among urban ethnic voters, rural constituencies, labor organizations, and advocacy groups such as the Women's Christian Temperance Union remnants, altering trajectories in 20th-century American public life.