The Pros And Cons Of The 18th Amendment

Ever since April 8, 1913, a portion of US citizens, primarily Conservatives politicians and commentators, have had mixed feelings of the ratification of the 17th amendment. Before, elected members of each House in a state would vote for two senators that they felt best represented their state. Many questioned why the amendment was necessary while a majority defended its ratification. As a result, it’s been argued that this modification took away one of the major powers of the states and increased the national government’s power. Others have said that repealing the amendment would strip away the people’s rights and bring back the corruption that took place in pre-17th amendment elections. But removing and repealing the 17th amendment would finally return powers to the states, decrease corruption, force voters to become more interested in who they’re electing, give Senate the ability to do what they are intended to do, restore the checks and balances system, and restore Federalism. Arguments to remove the amendment outweigh ones that fight to keep it. Repeal it or not, there are still going to be issues. For instance, before the ratification of the 17th amendment, U.S. Senators bought their seats through bribes (Mighell). After 1913, corruption was still present, but it was more of an “underground” deal. It used to be between a candidate and a state legislature, today, it’s the candidate and numerous unknown funding sources (The Campaign). In other words, there were obviously

The prohibition caused much controversy in the 1920’s. The 18th amendment was passed on Jan 16, 1920, it said in Title II, Section 3 the National Prohibition Act states that "No person shall on or after the date when the 18th Amendment to the Constitution of the United States goes into effect, manufacture, sell, barter, transport, import, export, deliver, furnish or possess any intoxicating liquor except as authorized in this act." (United States constitution). The Prohibition opened up many big business opportunities in the illegal marketing of alcohol. The people who took advantage of this opportunity were known as “Bootleggers”. With the enactment of this law organized crime was established, allowing men such as Al Capone to capitalize

The Constitution is a living, breathing document. It was recognized that each future generation would be facing new challenges that would have never occurred to the older ones, so it had the flexibility available by both interpretation and revisement to allow the newer generation to use the document as it was intended. As society and government grows, additions must be made to the Constitution to keep with the times. The Constitution is also governed by the thoughts of society at that time, seen in the implementation of the 18th amendment because of the urgings of religious and Women’s Suffrage movements. As it is also seen when the government grows weary of one president in office too long, seen in the creation of the 22nd amendment.

The 18th Amendment was removed from the Constitution and replaced by the 21st Amendment on December 5, 1933. It was added because the government was also suffering from the Great Depression at that time. By removing Prohibition, the government would get taxes from alcohol sales, jobs would be created, and it would decrease the costs of law enforcement for Prohibition. The 18th Amendment was the only amendment that was ever abolished in the U.S. Constitution. An amendment is supposed to stay in the Constitution forever and acts as a law that is protected by the federal government. When the 18th Amendment was removed, it shows that the government thinks that it wasn’t effective. Organized crime made money from selling the alcohol and increased crime throughout U.S. After years, lawmakers agreed that prohibition was not effective but also dangerous to many laws and caused many crimes concerning the safety of the citizens. Thousands were called back to work for alcohol companies. More than 5,000 new jobs are predicted as a result of repeal and many celebrated the downfall of Prohibition. After 13 years trying to stop use of alcohol among the citizens, Prohibition was not success, but rather

Not everyone in the United States agreed with the Nineteenth Amendment being passed. Two months after the Federal Government declared that the Amendment had been incorporated to the Constitution in August of 1920, Oscar Lesser “sued to stop two women [Cecilia Street Waters and Mary D. Randolph] to vote in Baltimore, Maryland. Lesser “believed the Maryland Constitution limited the suffrage to men”. He said that Maryland had refused to vote regarding the ratification of the Nineteenth Amendment, and should not be subject to its application.. In 1922, Leser v. Garnett, was argued before the United States Supreme Court. The plaintiffs of the case argued that the Nineteenth Amendment was not passed constitutionally. They claimed there were “three principal grounds” to their argument, which were: that the power to amend the Constitution did not cover this amendment "because of its character"; that several states that had ratified the amendment despite the fact that their state constitutions prohibited women from voting; and that, in particular, the ratifications of the states of Tennessee and West Virginia were were invalid because they were adopted without following the rules of legislative procedure in place in those states”. In a unanimous decision, the court ruled that the amendment was passed constitutionally. In their decision, the court responded to each of the three arguments. Lesser’s first argument claimed that if Amendment’s are added without the State’s consent, it

In 1917 was the point in history where Congress passed the Eighteenth Amendment to amend the Constitution which stated that it prohibited the export, import, manufacture, sale, and transportation of alcoholic beverages in the United States. This law sparked rebellion in American citizens across the nation; many people thought this law violated their right to live by their own standards. The implementation of the 18th amendment created a large number of bootleggers who were able to supply the public with illegal alcohol. Many of these bootleggers became very rich and influential through selling alcohol, gambling and using other methods. The prohibition era allowed for organized crime to flourish and these practices are still used today.

The 18th Amendment dealt with prohibiting the manufacture, transportation, and sale of alcohol. This amendment was ratified by the U.S. government and was probably one of the most futile proposals they could have ever came up with. The 18th amendment should have never been approved because it just gave Americans an alternative to break the law. Also, the government itself lost a great deal . Americans would ,in a sense, never give up alcholol, leaving the American government helpless with no other decision then to repeal the ban.

The late comedian W.C jokingly said,” Once, during the Prohibition, I was forced to live on for days on nothing but food and water. Even Though, he said this as a joke it was true for majority of the public. The days before the 18th amendment was passed many depended upon liquor. At one point the use of alcohol became abuse. Then on January 16, 1919 the 18th Amendment was ratified so alcohol could not take over the life of Americans, but it didn't go quite as planned. The Prohibition banned the manufacturing, sale, and transportation of alcohol and the desperate ones found loopholes in this simple amendment. The Eighteenth Amendment was ultimately passed to keep a healthy working society and it was repealed because of the increasing organized crime and illegal activities all over the country.

The 18th amendment made made the manufacture, sale, distribution, and consumption of alcohol illegal. This amendment was a huge failure because it causes people to go behind the laws back and drink illegally. There was a secret drinking establishment called speakeasies and there were also people who provided alcohol illegally and they were called bootleggers. The act that enforced prohibition was the volstead act.

The 18th amendment was ratified on January 16, 1919, which banned the manufacture, transportation, and sale of alcohol. This time has come to be known as the prohibition. It all started because of the effects alcohol was showing on American families. “Teachers had complained of children coming to school under the influence of drink” (Blumenthal, 84). Men were wasting away their money on alcohol and gambling, kids were being neglected, there was abuse, drunk driving, people not shown up to work due to drunkenness, and so much more all came from the consumption of alcohol. It was seen as a menace to the American Family (KCTS9, 2). Americans were getting fed up with the direction society was heading and decided to take action. Groups were formed

The 19th amendment was the true beginning of the women's fight for their rights, because the right to vote provides a powerful voice. In the twenties, women were discriminated - sadly, they still are - so society didn't let them vote. However, women didn't accept it, and they began to fight for their right to vote. Senator Aaron A. Sargent introduced the Nineteenth Amendment to the Congress, which prohibited denying the right of vote to U.S. citizens based on their sex. In 1919, the Congress passed the amendment, and in 1920 it was ratified. Today, women not only can vote, but they also have participation on the government, for example Madeleine Albright. She was the first woman that became the Secretary of States on the United States. Even

In the United States, the 18th Amendment was designed to avoid issues and prohibit all various alcohol. In many ways, the citizens of the United States disregarded the law and still found diverse ways to obtain alcohol. The worsening effects of the Amendment played a vital role in the Prohibition Era, in which the law caused the citizens to encounter themselves in violence and barbarity to our nation. The Amendment also created the arise of leaders including Al Capone in which almost gained power of authority in the city of Chicago in which generated intense brutality to our nation. I definitely agree with the idea that the Prohibition Era offered us the citizens of the United States a warning about the various dangers of the outlaw of alcohol

The 16th amendment is an important amendment that allows the UNITED STATES GOVERNMENT to collect income tax from all americans. this allows for the government to keep an army, build road and bridges, enforce laws and carry out important rules and regulations. the 16th amendment was passed because many people believe an income tax would provide a more stable source of income than by a chief way in which government had been financed throughout history to that point but such a tax could not be imposed because the Supreme Court had ruled in Pollock v. Farmers' Loan and Trust Company. PROS of 16th amendment, The federal government can collect revenues from income and thus increase expenditures. and government gets money from tax revenue, fines and

Some states such as New York, New Jersey, and Massachusetts did not enforce the prohibition act of 1920, causing funds to drop to the states for law enforcement agencies(GILDER). The prohibition Caused the rise of organized crime in the United States. Prohibition stated the creation of toxic moonshine, bootleggers used lead coils and lead soldering putting lead in moonshine(PEARSON). Others put additives in moonshine such as iodine and creosote causing blindness or even death. Over 12,000 people died from toxic moonshine Al Capone made over 60 million dollars from Bootlegging that’s 60 million dollars other US citizens lose. Many Bootleggers used Industrial alcohol in Products. The Federal Government started putting more poisonous chemicals in industrial alcohol causing over 10,000 deaths from consumption(PEARSON).Overall there are more negative effects of prohibition in the 1920’s. From poisonous alcohol to enforcement budget cuts it is all negative and is why prohibition failed. Even though prohibition stopped some americans from drinking alcohol it created a new door for new kinds of alcohol to come in to the US. Prohibition is bad in my opinion because it caused unnecessary deaths in america. That sets a final ending to the 18th Amendment in the 1920’s and forever

On January 19, 1920, the 18th Amendment was instated, which legally prohibited the "manufacture, sale, or transportation of intoxicating liquors" (Document). This law shut down liquor businesses and appears to be banning alcohol in the United States under all circumstances but when analyzed closely, it failed to state that in addition to the ban on the economic side, it was also outlawing the consumption side. The government assumed that due to the widespread knowledge and awareness of the 18th Amendment and its drastic effect on a common material good in society, that the ban on the importation, transportation, and selling of alcohol would indirectly lead to the inability to consume it. This was not the case. A few people discovered the loophole and as a result, the illegal liquor business began booming because though the supply of alcohol decreased, the demand was higher than ever.