Eighteenth Amendment Law and Legal Definition
The Eighteenth amendment to the U.S constitution established prohibition. It came into effect on January 16, 1920. By the eighteenth amendment the manufacture, sale, or transportation of intoxicating liquors within, the importation into, or the exportation from the United States was prohibited. However, the eighteenth amendment did not include enforcement measures nor it define what is meant by ‘intoxicating liquors.” In order to rectify these defects the Volstead Act (41 Stat. 305 [1919]) was enacted. The eighteenth amendment was subsequently repealed in 1933.
The Eighteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution reads:
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.
