From January 1920 to December 1933, the Eighteenth Amendment prohibited the manufacture, sale, or transportation of alcoholic beverages within the United States. Studying nationwide Prohibition can inform an understanding of how the Supreme Court has interpreted the scope of Congress’s power to regulate commerce over time; how difficult it can be for the federal government to regulate individual social habits and moral choices; and how the Supreme Court’s Fourth Amendment jurisprudence evolved in response to enforcement techniques that federal or state authorities employed to investigate violations of Prohibition, such as warrantless wiretapping of telephone lines.

Part I of this two-part series discusses historical events leading up to the Eighteenth Amendment’s proposal in Congress, including the temperance movement and early state prohibition laws.

From January 1920 to December 1933, the Eighteenth Amendment prohibited the manufacture, sale, or transportation of alcoholic beverages within the United States. Studying nationwide Prohibition can inform an understanding of how the Supreme Court has interpreted the scope of Congress’s power to regulate commerce over time; how difficult it can be for the federal government to regulate individual social habits and moral choices; and how the Supreme Court’s Fourth Amendment jurisprudence evolved in response to enforcement techniques that federal or state authorities employed to investigate violations of Prohibition, such as warrantless wiretapping of telephone lines.

Part II of this two-part series examines congressional debates over the Eighteenth Amendment, relevant Supreme Court decisions, and the Twenty-First Amendment’s repeal of Prohibition.

For more than a century after the Constitution’s ratification, many states prohibited female citizens of the United States from voting in federal or state elections. Ratified in 1920, the Nineteenth Amendment prohibits the federal and state governments from denying or abridging a U.S. citizen’s right to vote on the basis of sex, thereby recognizing women’s suffrage—in other words, a woman’s right to vote.

This podcast episode will explore the evolution of the women’s suffrage movement in the United States and the events leading up to the Nineteenth Amendment’s ratification. It also discusses the ways in which the Amendment continues to have a lasting impact throughout society.