United States v. Chambers

Background

Two men were indicted in federal court in North Carolina in June 1933 for conspiring to violate the National Prohibition Act and for possessing and transporting liquor. One defendant pleaded guilty but judgment was deferred until the December term. On December 6, 1933, the other defendant challenged the indictment, and both argued the recent repeal of the Eighteenth Amendment removed the court’s authority to continue the prosecution. The district judge agreed and dismissed the indictment, and the Government appealed.

Reasoning

The Court addressed whether the people’s ratification of the Twenty-first Amendment on December 5, 1933, which repealed the Eighteenth Amendment, left the National Prohibition Act able to support prosecutions. The Court held that when the Amendment was repealed, the constitutional basis for the Act disappeared and those parts of the statute depending on that constitutional grant became inoperative. The usual congressional “saving” clause for repealed statutes applies only when Congress itself repeals a law and can preserve penalties; it does not let Congress expand or restore constitutional power taken away by the people. The Twenty-first Amendment contained no clause preserving prosecutions, so pending prosecutions continued after repeal could not be enforced.

Real world impact

The Court affirmed dismissal of the indictment. Prosecutors cannot continue or start federal prosecutions under the National Prohibition Act after the Eighteenth Amendment was repealed unless some competent authority preserved the law’s force. Cases with final judgments entered before ratification were not decided here and present a different question.