Summary

The Twenty-First Amendment, ratified in 1933, repealed the Eighteenth Amendment and ended the era of Prohibition in the United States.
It remains the only amendment ever ratified by state conventions rather than state legislatures — a process chosen to reflect the direct will of the people.

The experiment of Prohibition had aimed to elevate moral behavior but instead fostered organized crime, black markets, and widespread defiance of the law.
Its repeal was not merely a return to the bottle, but a reaffirmation of balance —
a recognition that virtue cannot be legislated and that liberty cannot flourish under forced restraint.

By repealing Prohibition, the nation restored both personal freedom and faith in practical governance.
The Twenty-First stands as a constitutional course correction — the Republic’s acknowledgment that wisdom often follows experience.

Text of the Amendment

Section 1.
The eighteenth article of amendment to the Constitution of the United States is hereby repealed.

Section 2.
The transportation or importation into any State, Territory, or possession of the United States for delivery or use therein of intoxicating liquors,
in violation of the laws thereof, is hereby prohibited.

Section 3.
This article shall be inoperative unless it shall have been ratified as an amendment to the Constitution
by conventions in the several States, as provided in the Constitution,
within seven years from the date of the submission hereof to the States by the Congress.

“Amendment XXI reminded the Republic that freedom is a lesson best learned through its own excess —
that moral strength grows not from mandate, but from moderation.”
— HAL 1776, Heuristic Archivist of Liberty