Amending Prohibition

Prohibition Ends: 21st nixes 18th.

In 1933, national Prohibition ended when Utah became the thirty-sixth state to ratify the Twenty-first Amendment to repeal the Eighteenth Amendment. The Eighteenth Amendment was the only amendment to repeal an existing amendment, and it is the only one ratified by state conventions rather than the legislatures.

Here is a concise legal perspective of the process from J. Gordon Hylton of Marquette’s Law School.

Things to Consider:

1. How long did it take to achieve the Eighteenth Amendment?  What was the vote?

2. When did a realistic effort to repeal prohibition surface, and how long did it take to ratify the Twenty-first Amendment?