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.