Prohibition uses. Alcohol consumption was never illegal under federal law. Nationwide Prohibition did not begin in the United States until January 1920, when the Eighteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution went into effect. The 18th amendment was ratified in 1919, and was repealed in December 1933 with the ratification of the Twenty-first Amendment. Concern over excessive alcohol consumption began during the American colonial era, when fines were imposed for drunken behavior and for selling liquor without a license. In the eighteenth century, when drinking was a part of everyday American life, Protestant religious groups, especially the Methodists, and health reformers, including
Ninth Amendment to the United States Constitution according to this viewpoint, the Second Amendment only enumerates a pre-existing right to keep and bear arms. The Ninth Amendment explicitly bars denial of unenumerated rights if the denial is based on the "enumeration of certain rights" in the Constitution, but this amendment does not explicitly bar denial of unenumerated rights if the denial is based on the "enumeration of certain powers" in the Constitution. It is to that enumeration of powers that the courts have pointed, in order to determine the extent of the unenumerated rights mentioned in the Ninth Amendment. Ninth Amendment to the United States Constitution The