18. Amendment to the United States Constitution
The 18th Amendment to the Constitution of the United States of America ( Eighteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution ) served the introduction of alcohol prohibition . It was passed by the United States Congress on December 18, 1917 and ratified by three-quarters of all states by January 16, 1919. It came into force on January 16, 1920, and was repealed in 1933 by the 21st Amendment .
The amendment was the first to include an expiration date by which the required majority of states had to ratify. Mississippi was the first state to ratify the amendment on January 7, 1918, New Jersey on March 9, 1922 as the 46th of the then 48 states , only Connecticut and Rhode Island voted against the adoption. The constitutional amendment did not prohibit the consumption of alcoholic beverages, but made it more difficult because production, import and sale were prohibited.
text
Part 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. ”
"One year after the ratification of this Amendment, the manufacture, sale and transport of intoxicating liquids within, as well as their import into and export from the United States of America and all territories in which its jurisdiction applies, provided that this is Consumption intended as a drink is prohibited. "
Section 2
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."
“This amendment is ineffective if it is not recognized by the states within seven years in a constitutional process as a supplement to the constitution. The seven-year period begins on the date that Congress announces the text to the states. "
Notes on the text
- The concept of intoxicating liquids in the sense of the 18th amendment to the constitution was specified in the National Prohibition Act in 1919 . The legal provisions enacted on the basis of this constitutional amendment relate exclusively to drinks with an alcohol content of more than 0.5%.
- The entire second section expresses that this is a national legal regulation that both the states and the USA themselves are entitled and obliged to enforce. Implementation could therefore be through federal law, state law, or both (competing). In other amendments to the constitution, the clause and the individual states are omitted .
