Legal Definitions - Twenty-first Amendment

The Twenty-first Amendment is a significant change to the United States Constitution, ratified in 1933. Its main purpose was to end the nationwide ban on alcohol, a period known as Prohibition, which had been established by the Eighteenth Amendment. By repealing Prohibition, the Twenty-first Amendment returned the authority to regulate the production, sale, and consumption of alcoholic beverages to individual states.

Here are some examples illustrating the impact of the Twenty-first Amendment:

• Example 1: State-Specific Drinking Ages

  After the Twenty-first Amendment was ratified, each state gained the power to set its own legal drinking age. For instance, while most states now have a legal drinking age of 21, this is largely due to federal incentives rather than a constitutional mandate. Before these incentives, some states experimented with lower drinking ages, such as 18 or 19. This ability for states to determine who can legally purchase and consume alcohol directly reflects the regulatory power restored to them by the Twenty-first Amendment.

• Example 2: Varying Alcohol Sales Regulations

  Consider a scenario where one state allows grocery stores to sell hard liquor, while a neighboring state restricts liquor sales to specialized, state-run stores or privately owned liquor stores only. Furthermore, one city within a state might permit alcohol sales on Sundays, while another city in the same state, or a different state entirely, prohibits Sunday sales. These diverse rules regarding where and when alcohol can be sold are direct consequences of the Twenty-first Amendment, which empowers each state to craft its own unique alcohol laws.

• Example 3: "Dry" Counties and Local Option Laws

  In some states, certain counties or municipalities are designated as "dry," meaning they prohibit the sale of alcoholic beverages within their borders. This local control over alcohol sales, often referred to as "local option," is permitted because the Twenty-first Amendment granted states the authority to regulate alcohol, and states, in turn, can delegate some of that authority to local jurisdictions. This demonstrates how the amendment allows for highly localized and specific regulations concerning alcohol availability, reflecting the states' broad power to manage alcohol within their territories.