21st Amendment
1: The eighteenth article of amendment to the Constitution of the United States is hereby repealed.
2: The transportation or importation into any State, Territory, or possession of the United States for delivery or use therein of intoxicating liquors, in violation of the laws thereof, is hereby prohibited.
3: This article shall be inoperative unless it shall have been ratified as an amendment to the Constitution by conventions in the several States, as provided in the Constitution, within seven years from the date of the submission hereof to the States by the Congress.
Table of Contents
21st Amendment Simplified
Section one of the Twenty-First Amendment of the United States Constitution states that the Constitution’s 18th Amendment is repealed. This means that once the 21st Amendment passed, the Eighteenth Amendment would be permanently removed from the Constitution.
Section Two of the 21st Amendment prohibits the importation and possession of alcohol within the United States by violating the law. This section of the constitutional amendment permits states to prohibit the transportation, importation, sale, or possession of alcoholic beverages.
Section Three of the 21st Amendment states that the article has to be ratified as an amendment to the Constitution within seven years from the date Congress submits it to each state.
When was the 21st Amendment passed?
Ratification of the 21st Amendment had to be done by the required states by states in seven years for the end of national prohibition to be enacted as part of the constitution. After passing in Congress, ratification was set for February of 1933. The 21st Amendment was to repeal another amendment in the constitution, and the amendment process passed quickly.
What Did The 21st Amendment Do?
In simple terms, on December 5, 1933, the nationwide Prohibition that had lasted for fourteen years came to an end. This end happened after Utah, and thirty-six other states ratified the 21st Amendment of the Constitution.
Each state came up with its own rules regarding alcoholic beverages from drinking age limits, importation, and sales. However, the drinking age is similar among most states as federal funds are only provided to a state when the minimum age to drink alcohol is 21 years old.
The Termination of Prohibition
After the 18th Amendment was ratified in the constitution and instituted prohibition, the 21st Amendment was later ratified and ended Prohibition. The support of Prohibition came mainly from the Temperance Movement that backed it up.
Prohibition was an epic failure, and the 21st Amendment was an acknowledgment of this fact. But unfortunately, criminals such as Al Capone had taken advantage, and they sold alcohol illegally to those who wanted it. This showed how much people were disrespecting the law.
However, alcohol was only completely legal in different parts of the country after the 18th Amendment was repealed from the constitution. Some states had made it legal according to their state legislature, but others still chose to maintain the previous anti-alcohol laws set. Some states kept the old laws for a long time and were referred to as “dry states.”
Why The Twenty First Amendment?
Currently, adults of the legal drinking age have to follow the rules on when and where they can purchase an alcoholic drink, whether wine, spirits, liquor, or beer.
The question that’s most asked is why the public opinion had gone against Prohibition?
It wasn’t only influenced by people wanting to consume alcohol. Most citizens agreed that alcohol prohibition was an experiment that had failed as it hadn’t reduced the alcoholism rate.
The worst thing that arose from Prohibition was that the people against it showed their evilness. As a result, many terrible acts came into play, including the growing black market for alcohol and how law enforcement lost its willingness to fight against these illegal acts concerning alcohol.
Organized crime syndicates were on the rise during Prohibition. They bribed the police to carry on their business with illegal alcohol. Police took the bribes, which made it even more apparent that Prohibition was failing.
