''Dillon v. Gloss'', 256 U.S. 368 (1921), was a case in which the

Supreme Court of the United States The Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) is the highest court in the federal judiciary of the United States. It has ultimate appellate jurisdiction over all U.S. Federal tribunals in the United States, federal court cases, and over Stat ...

held that

Congress A congress is a formal meeting of the representatives of different countries, constituent states, organizations, trade unions, political parties, or other groups. The term originated in Late Middle English to denote an encounter (meeting of ...

, when proposing a

constitutional amendment A constitutional amendment is a modification of the constitution of a polity, organization or other type of entity. Amendments are often interwoven into the relevant sections of an existing constitution, directly altering the text. Conversely, ...

under the authority given to it by Article V of the

Constitution A constitution is the aggregate of fundamental principles or established precedents that constitute the legal basis of a polity, organisation or other type of entity and commonly determine how that entity is to be governed. When these pr ...

, may fix a definite period for its ratification, and further, that the reasonableness of the seven-year period, fixed by Congress in the resolution proposing the Eighteenth Amendment is beyond question. Additionally, the Court, upon taking

judicial notice Judicial notice is a rule in the law of evidence that allows a fact to be introduced into evidence if the truth of that fact is so notorious or well-known, or so authoritatively attested, that it cannot reasonably be doubted. This is done upon the ...

that the Eighteenth Amendment became a part of the Constitution on January 16, 1919, when its ratification in the state legislatures was consummated, held that the National Prohibition Act, known informally as the

Volstead Act The National Prohibition Act, known informally as the Volstead Act, was an act of the 66th United States Congress, designed to carry out the intent of the 18th Amendment (ratified January 1919), which established the prohibition of alcoholic d ...

, entered into

force In physics, a force is an influence that can change the motion of an object. A force can cause an object with mass to change its velocity (e.g. moving from a state of rest), i.e., to accelerate. Force can also be described intuitively as a ...

on January 16, 1920.

Background

Dillon had been arrested pursuant to the National Prohibition Act, title 2, § 3, and was in custody under § 26. He was denied his petition for a writ of ''habeas corpus'', and appealed the denial. Dillon claimed that the Eighteenth Amendment, which Title 2 of the act was adopted to enforce, was invalid, because the Congress, in declaring that it should be inoperative unless ratified within seven years, had acted outside its constitutional authority; and, secondly, that, in any event, the law he was charged with violating, and under which he was arrested, had not gone into effect at the time of the asserted violation nor at the time of his arrest on January 17, 1920.

Syllabus

# Article V of the Constitution implies that amendments submitted thereunder must be ratified, if at all, within some reasonable time after their proposal. This was modified in 1939 by ''

Coleman v. Miller ''Coleman v. Miller'', 307 U.S. 433 (1939), is a landmark decision of the United States Supreme Court which clarified that if the Congress of the United States—when proposing for ratification an amendment to the United States Constitution, p ...

'', which ruled that proposed amendments with no specified expiration pend ratification before the States indefinitely. # Under Article V, Congress, in proposing an amendment, may fix a reasonable time for its ratification. # The period of seven years, fixed by Congress in the resolution proposing the Eighteenth Amendment was reasonable. # The Eighteenth Amendment became a part of the Constitution on January 16, 1919, when, as the Court notices judicially, its ratification in the state legislatures was consummated, not on January 29, 1919, when the ratification was proclaimed by the Secretary of State. # As the Eighteenth Amendment, by its own terms, was to go into effect one year after being ratified, §§ 3 and 26, Title II, of the National Prohibition Act, which, by § 21, Title III, were to be in force from and after the effective date of the Amendment, were in force on January 16, 1920. P. 256 U. S. 376. The lower court's ruling was upheld.

References

External links

* *{{caselaw source , case = ''Dillon v. Gloss'', {{ussc, 256, 368, 1921, el=no , cornell =https://www.law.cornell.edu/supremecourt/text/256/368 , courtlistener =https://www.courtlistener.com/opinion/99807/dillon-v-gloss/ , findlaw = https://caselaw.findlaw.com/us-supreme-court/256/368.html , googlescholar = https://scholar.google.com/scholar_case?case=3455641467078386929 , justia =https://supreme.justia.com/cases/federal/us/256/368/case.html , loc =http://cdn.loc.gov/service/ll/usrep/usrep256/usrep256368/usrep256368.pdf 1921 in United States case law United States Supreme Court cases United States Supreme Court cases of the White Court United States Constitution Article Five case law Prohibition in the United States United States Eighteenth Amendment case law

Background

Syllabus

See also

References

External links