The Volstead Act and the 18th Amendment

Temperance activist and Minnesota House Representative, Andrew Volstead, wrote and promoted the self-titled Volstead Act. It was submitted for a vote in 1919 and enacted into law by 1920.[1] It followed the ratification of the 18^th amendment, which made alcohol manufacturing and sale illegal. What the Volstead Act provided for the government was the means to enforce national prohibition.[2] Furthermore, the Volstead Act functioned as the legal reasoning to create the Prohibition Unit and its successor, the Prohibition Bureau. It is important to note that the language of both the Volstead Act and the 18^th amendment did not explicitly make the consumption of alcohol illegal. Rather it criminalized the means of acquiring any alcohol and placed the responsibilities of enforcement in the hands of the federal government and specific state governments.

The 18^th Amendment reads:

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.[3]