The 18th Amendment
Avi Arora
What is the 18th amendment?
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 1 (simplified): the 18th amendment would go into effect one year after the states okayed it. selling, making, or bringing liquor into the country or United States border/territory will be made illegal..but this did not make consuming it illegal
What Is the 18th amendment?
Section 2:The Congress and the several States shall have concurrent power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation.
Section 2 Simplified: Congress can pass any laws it needs to make sure that this law is enforced and alcohol is not consumed or bought, ie; black market)
What is the 18th amendment?
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.
Section 3 simplified: the amendment needs to be confirm by ¾ of the states within seven years or it will become invalid
Dates
The Amendment was ratified on January 16, 1919, went into effect one year later on January 16, 1920, and was repealed by the 21st Amendment on December 5, 1933.
Why was it relevant in that time?
Before the 18th amendment became a law, mostly women but also some men, blame alcohol for violence and other problems that were affecting there’s and others lives. They would take axes and other weapons and attack saloons or other places that stored alcohol, destroying all of it. The motivation for the 18th amendment was inspired from these reasons and their desire to make a better society by banning alcohol. We now know that the 18th amendment failed and actually made things worse.
Good AND Bad effects
The amendment had many ups and downs. Good was that people would not be drunk enabling them to make better and safer decisions. Some of the bads was that gangs made a lot of profit selling alcohol illegally.
Imagine a 20 year old man walking drunk down a street. Imagine a whole group of them. They walk into a large store and start shooting everyone. The store owner is worried, he losing customers, this has been happening almost everyday. The government can’t have this. They can’t have people drinking and people dying from this cause everyday. This is why the 18th amendment was made. To control and hopefully stop drinking to make everyone feel and be safer.
Getting Repealed
1) There was the fact that not enough people thought that drinking was really such a bad thing.. When the majority of people don't respect/like a law, it can't really survive.
2) there was the fact that Prohibition was helping organized crime. Gangs were getting rich selling it illegally. This led to a lot of violence that helped the supporters of the amendment rethink their decision..
Links:
http://constitution.findlaw.com/amendment18.html#sthash.XUERoa5H.dpuf
http://kids.laws.com/18th-amendment
http://www.enotes.com/homework-help/what-was-cause-repal-eighteenth-amendment-by-315901