21st Amendment
Twenty-First Amendment
Ratified December 5, 1933
Verbatim
Exact text as ratified.
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 The eighteenth article of amendment to the Constitution of the United States is hereby repealed.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.
Plain English
A translation that drops archaic words but keeps the meaning, including the parts courts still argue about.
Section 1. The Eighteenth Amendment is repealed.
Section 2. It is illegal to transport or import alcoholic beverages into any state, territory, or U.S. possession in violation of that place's laws.
Section 3. This amendment will not take effect unless ratified by state conventions within seven years.
About
The Twenty-First Amendment was ratified on December 5, 1933, ending 13 years of national Prohibition. It is the only amendment in U.S. history to have been ratified by state conventions rather than by state legislatures. Congress chose this method because state legislatures were considered more likely to be influenced by anti-alcohol political organizations, while specially convened state conventions could reflect broader public opinion.
Section 2 preserved the right of states to regulate alcohol within their own borders. Some states and counties have remained "dry" — banning alcohol sales — under the authority of this section. The patchwork of state and local alcohol laws that exists today is rooted in this section.