Happy days are here again: The 21st amendment repeals Prohibition

The 21st Amendment to the Constitution was certainly popular on this day in 1933, when it was ratified and ended the long national experiment known as Prohibition. Here is what the text actually says.

 

Full Text of the 21st Amendment

 

Section 1. The eighteenth article of amendment to the Constitution of the United States is hereby repealed.

 

Section 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.

 

Section 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.

 

Synopsis:

 

In repealing Prohibition, this was the only amendment that the states ratified by conventions rather than by legislatures.

 

Source: U.S. Senate

 

Resources:

 

1. The Library of Congress Constitution Annotated. Contains a detailed history of the amendment, along with past and recent court cases. Here is a link to the section on the 21th Amendment.

 

2. Cornell Legal Information Institute. Includes information from Wex, a free legal dictionary and encyclopedia sponsored and hosted by the Legal Information Institute at the Cornell Law School. Wex entries are collaboratively created and edited by legal experts.