Voluntary Committee of Lawyers

Last updated
Voluntary Committee of Lawyers
AbbreviationVCL
Formation1927
Purpose Association Against the Prohibition Amendment
Location
Key people
Joseph H. Choate, Jr.

The original Voluntary Committee of Lawyers (VCL) was founded in 1927 to bring about the repeal of prohibition and the Volstead Act. The VCL provided legal support for the Association Against the Prohibition Amendment, an umbrella organization that opposed prohibition. With its urging, the American Bar Association called for repeal in 1928. Under the leadership of Joseph H. Choate, Jr., lawyers in every state were actively involved in working to bring about repeal, which occurred in 1933. At that time, the VCL closed its books and ceased to exist. [1] [2]

Contents

Modern incarnation

A modern version of the Voluntary Committee of Lawyers was incorporated in 1996, established through its founding committee, including former U.S. Attorneys General Elliot Richardson and Nicholas Katzenbach, former American Bar Association President George Bushnell, former federal judge A. Leon Higginbotham, Jr. and labor lawyer Theodore W. Kheel. The modern VCL was inspired by the earlier group of the same name, but focused on the modern war on drugs. [1] [3]

Related Research Articles

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Prohibition is the act or practice of forbidding something by law; more particularly the term refers to the banning of the manufacture, storage, transportation, sale, possession, and consumption of alcoholic beverages. The word is also used to refer to a period of time during which such bans are enforced.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Volstead Act</span> 1919 US law initiating the prohibition of alcoholic beverages

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, which established the prohibition of alcoholic drinks. The Anti-Saloon League's Wayne Wheeler conceived and drafted the bill, which was named after Andrew Volstead, chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, who managed the legislation.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Temperance movement</span> Social movement against drinking alcohol

The temperance movement is a social movement promoting temperance or complete abstinence from consumption of alcoholic beverages. Participants in the movement typically criticize alcohol intoxication or promote teetotalism, and its leaders emphasize alcohol's negative effects on people's health, personalities and family lives. Typically the movement promotes alcohol education and it also demands the passage of new laws against the sale of alcohol, either regulations on the availability of alcohol, or the complete prohibition of it. During the 19th and early 20th centuries, the temperance movement became prominent in many countries, particularly in English-speaking, Scandinavian, and majority Protestant ones, and it eventually led to national prohibitions in Canada, Norway, Finland, and the United States, as well as provincial prohibition in India. A number of temperance organizations exist that promote temperance and teetotalism as a virtue.

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Prohibition Party</span> Political party in the United States

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The Anti-Saloon League is an organization of the temperance movement.

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The National Lawyers Guild (NLG) is a progressive public interest association of lawyers, law students, paralegals, jailhouse lawyers, law collective members, and other activist legal workers, in the United States. The group was founded in 1937 as an alternative to the American Bar Association (ABA) in protest of that organization's exclusionary membership practices and conservative political orientation. They were the first US bar association to allow the admission of minorities to their ranks. The group sought to bring more lawyers closer to the labor movement and progressive political activities, to support and encourage lawyers otherwise "isolated and discouraged," and to help create a "united front" against Fascism.

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The repeal of Prohibition in the United States was accomplished with the passage of the Twenty-first Amendment to the United States Constitution on December 5, 1933.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Joseph H. Choate Jr.</span> American lawyer

Joseph Hodges Choate Jr., was an American lawyer who chaired the Voluntary Committee of Lawyers, a group established in 1927 that promoted the repeal of prohibition. Upon repeal in 1933, President Franklin Roosevelt named Choate the first head of the Federal Alcohol Control Administration (FACA).

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The Crusaders was an organization founded to promote the repeal of prohibition in the United States. The executive board consisted of fifty members, including Alfred Sloan, Jr., Sewell Avery, Cleveland Dodge, and Wallage Alexander. They wanted the government to create stronger laws regarding drunkenness.

The Association Against the Prohibition Amendment was established in 1918 and became a leading organization working for the repeal of prohibition in the United States. It was the first group created to fight Prohibition, also known as the 18th Amendment. The group was officially incorporated on December 31, 1920. Its activities consisted of meetings, protests, and distribution of informational pamphlets and it operated solely upon voluntary financial contribution. Due to low amount of financial contributions, the Association was largely stagnant until prominent members joined in the mid-1920s.

The Virginia State Bar (VSB) is the administrative agency of the Supreme Court of Virginia created to regulate, improve and advance the legal profession in Virginia. Membership in good standing in the VSB is mandatory for attorneys wishing to practice law in the Commonwealth of Virginia. The VSB is thus an integrated bar.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Prohibition in the United States</span> 1920 to 1933

In the United States from 1920 to 1933, a nationwide constitutional law prohibited the production, importation, transportation, and sale of alcoholic beverages. The alcohol industry was curtailed by a succession of state legislatures, and finally ended nationwide under the Eighteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution, ratified on January 16, 1919. Prohibition ended with the ratification of the Twenty-first Amendment, which repealed the Eighteenth Amendment on December 5, 1933.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Alcohol law</span> Law pertaining to alcoholic beverages

Alcohol laws are laws in relation to the manufacture, use, being under the influence of and sale of alcohol or alcoholic beverages that contains ethanol. Common alcoholic beverages include beer, wine, (hard) cider, and distilled spirits. The United States defines an alcoholic beverage as "any beverage in liquid form which contains not less than one-half of one percent of alcohol by volume", but this definition varies internationally. These laws can restrict those who can produce alcohol, those who can buy it, when one can buy it, labelling and advertising, the types of alcoholic beverage that can be sold, where one can consume it, what activities are prohibited while intoxicated., and where one can buy it. In some cases, laws have even prohibited the use and sale of alcohol entirely, as with Prohibition in the United States from 1920 to 1933.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Temperance movement in the United States</span> Efforts to reduce or end the consumption of alcohol

In the United States, the temperance movement, which sought to curb the consumption of alcohol, had a large influence on American politics and American society in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, culminating in the prohibition of alcohol, through the Eighteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution, from 1920 to 1933. There is some disagreement whether the policies were a 'failure' or whether they triggered an increase in organized crime, though that remains a commonly held belief. Several years after Prohibition policies were lifted, alcohol use remained significantly lower but eventually rose to pre-prohibition levels. Crimes that were associated with excessive drinking such as domestic abuse also saw a sharp decline during Prohibition. Alcohol consumption is much lower than it was in early 1900's.. Today, there are organizations that continue to promote the cause of temperance. The World Health Organization has noted that out of social problems created by the harmful use of alcohol, "crime and violence related to alcohol consumption" are likely the most significant issue.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ending Federal Marijuana Prohibition Act</span>

The Ending Federal Marijuana Prohibition Act is a series of federal marijuana decriminalization bills that have been introduced multiple times in the United States Congress.

References

  1. 1 2 David M. Fahey, Jon S. Miller, eds., Alcohol and Drugs in North America: A Historical Encyclopedia (ABC-CLIO, 2013), ISBN   978-1598844795, pp. 735-736. Excerpts available at Google Books.
  2. Robert Fredrick Burk, The Corporate State and the Broker State: The Du Ponts and American National Politics, 1925-1940 (Harvard University Press, 1990), ISBN   978-0674172722, pp.57 & passim. Excerpts available at Google Books.
  3. Robert Hirshon, "Legalizing Marijuana: An Issue That Just Won't Go Away", CNBC, April 20, 2010.