582
Changing the Constitution
to speak for, represent, or be responsible to the State legislatures. That the
change enlarged the influence of the voters and weakened that of federalism is abundantly clear.
h . a m e n d m e n t x v i i i (1919)
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.
Known as the Prohibition Amendment, this short-lived amendment prohibited the manufacture, sale, or transportation of intoxicating liquors
throughout the United States. Although the Amendment was enthusiastically ratified by every State in the Union except Connecticut and Rhode
Island, the ‘‘noble experiment’’ proved to be largely unenforceable. Just
fourteen years after its adoption, it was repealed.
The colossal failure of the Eighteenth Amendment demonstrates the
folly of using the amendment process for purposes for which it was not
intended. National Prohibition was a specific public policy that could
have easily been achieved by a simple Act of Congress. It would also
seem that the issue should have been left for resolution by the States, as
was the case prior to its adoption. The Constitution is not served well
when the amendment process is used to implement specific policies that
might otherwise be accomplished by a statute. Such, it would seem, is the
lesson to be learned from this well-intentioned but unwise amendment.
One of the more unfortunate results of this amendment is that it fostered
the growth of bootleggers, which in turn gave rise to organized crime,
from which the United States has not yet recovered.