Eighteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution the Senate voted similarly the next day. The Volstead Act set the starting date for nationwide prohibition for January 17, 1920, which was the earliest date allowed by the 18th amendment. The act was conceived and introduced by Wayne Wheeler who was a leader of the Anti-Saloon League, a group which found alcohol responsible for almost all of society's problems, and were also responsible for many campaigns against the sale of alcohol. The law was also heavily supported by Judiciary Chairman at the time, Andrew Volstead from Minnesota and was named in his honor. The act in its written form
Repeal of Prohibition in the United States used his expertise as the Attorney General who first enforced Prohibition to promote a plan to expedite its repeal through state conventions rather than the state legislatures. The Cullen–Harrison Act, signed by President Franklin D. Roosevelt on March 22, 1933, authorized the sale of 3.2 percent beer (thought to be too low an alcohol concentration to be intoxicating) and wine, which allowed the first legal beer sales since the beginning of Prohibition on January 16, 1920. In 1933 state conventions ratified the Twenty-first Amendment, which repealed Prohibition. The Amendment was fully ratified on December 5, 1933. Federal laws enforcing Prohibition