80th Anniversary of the Repeal of Prohibition

Last week, on December 5th, the United States marked the 80th anniversary of the repeal of the Eighteenth Amendment to the Constitution. The Eighteenth Amendment, ratified in 1919, prohibited "the manufacture, sale, or transportation of intoxicating liquors within, the importation thereof into, or the exportation thereof" from the United States and its territories. (Note that there was no restriction upon the consumption of alcohol.) This Amendment was repealed by the Twenty-first Amendment, ratified on December 5, 1933.

To celebrate the 80th anniversary of Prohibition's repeal, the ABA Journal created its own "legally-themed" cocktail, the "Mens Rea," or "guilty mind." Why celebrate with a cocktail? Prohibition brought about a "renaissance of cocktail creation," as a way to make moonshine whiskey and bathtub gin more palatable, according to The Voice of America.

The following resources in the McKusick Law Library shed more light on the reform movement that led to Prohibition, the struggle to enforce prohibition statutes, the ratification of the Twenty-first Amendment by conventions in the states instead of by state legislatures, and the impact of Prohibition on the development of legal thought.

Shaping the 18th Amendment:Temperance Reform, Legal Culture, and the Polity/By Richard F. Hamm

Ill Starred Prohibition Cases: A Study in Judicial Pathology/By Forrest Revere Black (published in 1931 and particularly interesting for its stirring foreword by Clarence Darrow)

The Amendments to the Constitution: A Commentary/By George Anastaplo (Chapter 14)

Ratification of the Twenty-First Amendment to the Constitution of the United States: State Convention Records and Laws/Compiled by Everett Somerville Brown

Federal Criminal Law Doctrines: The Forgotten Influence of National Prohibition/By Kenneth M. Murchison