Dillon v. Gloss

Dillon v. Gloss
Supreme Court of the United States
Argued March 22, 1921 Decided May 16, 1921
Full case name	Dillon v. Gloss, Deputy Collector
Citations	256 U.S. 368 (more) 41 S. Ct. 510; 65 L. Ed. 994; 1921 U.S. LEXIS 1612
Case history
Prior	262 Fed. 563
Holding
Congress may, if it chooses to, fix a reasonable time for ratification of a constitutional amendment, and a period of seven years is reasonable. A Constitutional amendment becomes a part of the Constitution upon being ratified by three-fourths of the states; thus, the Eighteenth Amendment became a part of the Constitution on January 16, 1919, and the federal legislation enacted to carry out its intent entered into force on January 16, 1920.
Court membership
Chief Justice Edward D. White Associate Justices Joseph McKenna · Oliver W. Holmes Jr. William R. Day · Willis Van Devanter Mahlon Pitney · James C. McReynolds Louis Brandeis · John H. Clarke
Case opinion
Majority	Van Devanter, joined by unanimous
Laws applied
Article V of the Constitution
Overruled by
Coleman v. Miller (1939) (in part)

Dillon v. Gloss, 256 U.S. 368 (1921), was a case in which the Supreme Court of the United States held that Congress, when proposing a constitutional amendment under the authority given to it by Article V of the Constitution, 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 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, entered into force on January 16, 1920.^[1]