National Prohibition Act

The National Prohibition Act, commonly called the Volstead Act after Congressman Andrew Volstead who steered it through the House, is a 1919 United States federal law enacted to provide enforcement for the Eighteenth Amendment's nationwide ban on the manufacture, sale and transportation of intoxicating liquor. It defined an intoxicating beverage as one containing more than 0.5 percent alcohol by volume and set out criminal penalties for violations, though it exempted alcohol used for religious, industrial and medicinal purposes. Congress passed the act over President Woodrow Wilson's veto, and it took effect alongside the Eighteenth Amendment on January 17, 1920, ushering in the Prohibition era, which saw the rise of organized bootlegging and speakeasies. The act became unenforceable, and Prohibition itself ended, with the ratification of the Twenty-first Amendment in 1933, which repealed the Eighteenth Amendment.