Twenty-First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution

The Twenty-First Amendment to the Constitution of the United States, which repealed the Eighteenth Amendment, was passed by Congress on February 20, 1933, and was ratified on December 5, 1933. The Eighteenth Amendment was designed in the late 1910s to prohibit the manufacture, distribution, and transportation of alcohol within the United States; however, a number of unintended consequences resulted from its passage. These consequences, matched with the pre-prohibition attitudes of those groups and individuals who were against the passage and ratification of the Eighteenth Amendment, were just a few of the factors that ultimately led to a significant change in the construct of the Constitution. The organization of interest groups coupled with the political and economic climate of the late 1920s and early 1930s provided an opportunity for a new focus on alcohol in America to be created.

The passage and ratification of the Eighteenth Amendment came on the heels of World War I, which provided the temperance movement, led at that time by the Anti-Saloon League, with an opportunity to make prohibition a reality. Their targeting of ethnic Germans, who owned a significant number of the breweries in the United States, and their ability to gain protection for the materials needed for the manufacture of alcohol in the war rationing efforts of President Wilson and Congress proved their ability to seize the moment when it was ripe. The realization of their goal of a prohibition amendment to the Constitution was within grasp, and ultimately was achieved in January 1919 with the ratification of the Eighteenth Amendment.

The ratification of the Eighteenth Amendment, as noted, brought a number of unintended consequences. While it was the goal of the Eighteenth Amendment to prohibit the manufacture, distribution, and transportation of alcohol, the reality of its existence was that it merely criminalized these actions rather than perpetuating any level of prohibition. The implementation of prohibition did change the way manufacturers operated, however, it did very little to actually stem the tide of alcohol production and had only a moderate effect on alcohol consumption. Ultimately, by criminalizing these actions, the Eighteenth Amendment did little more than create a larger population of criminals within the United States.