One. In the entire history of the United States Constitution, exactly one amendment has ever been repealed: the Eighteenth Amendment, which established national Prohibition on alcohol, was struck down by the Twenty-First Amendment in December 1933. Out of 27 ratified amendments, that single reversal stands alone. A handful of other amendments have overridden or replaced parts of the original Constitution, but none has ever formally canceled a prior amendment by name.
The Only Repealed Amendment
The Eighteenth Amendment, ratified in January 1919, banned the manufacture, sale, and transportation of alcoholic beverages throughout the United States and its territories.1Constitution Annotated. Amdt18.9 Repeal of the Eighteenth Amendment Enforcement began a year later and ran for nearly fourteen years.
It did not go well. Federal agents could not keep up with the scale of illegal production and smuggling. Bootlegging fueled organized crime, corruption spread through law enforcement, and disrespect for the law became widespread. The Wickersham Commission, appointed by President Hoover to study the policy, concluded that Prohibition contradicted the habits of too many Americans to be enforced. The Great Depression added an economic argument: the federal government was losing substantial tax revenue from alcohol sales when it needed every dollar it could find.2Federal Judicial Center. Prohibition in the Federal Courts: A Timeline
How the Twenty-First Amendment Ended It
Congress proposed the Twenty-First Amendment on February 20, 1933.3Constitution Annotated. Amdt21.S1.2.5 Ratification of the Twenty-First Amendment Section 1 is remarkably direct for a legal document: “The eighteenth article of amendment to the Constitution of the United States is hereby repealed.”4U.S. Constitution – Twenty-First Amendment. Twenty-First Amendment No qualifications, no partial rollback. The entire Eighteenth Amendment was nullified in a single sentence.
On December 5, 1933, Acting Secretary of State William Phillips certified that the required number of states had approved the amendment.3Constitution Annotated. Amdt21.S1.2.5 Ratification of the Twenty-First Amendment Fewer than ten months had passed between the proposal in Congress and the states completing ratification.
The ratification process itself was unusual. Congress required approval through special state ratifying conventions rather than state legislatures, making the Twenty-First Amendment the only amendment in history ratified that way.5U.S. House of Representatives: History, Art & Archives. The Ratification of the Twenty-first Amendment Many politicians believed conventions better reflected popular will on a question of individual conduct, and the choice let repeal bypass a temperance lobby that still held influence in state legislatures and rural districts.6Legal Information Institute. Ratification Deadline, State Ratifying Conventions, and the Twenty-First Amendment
Why Other Amendments Do Not Count as Repeals
Several amendments have effectively rewritten portions of the original Constitution, but none is a repeal. A repeal explicitly cancels an earlier provision by name; supersession replaces an old rule with a new one covering the same ground. The distinction matters when counting.
- The Twelfth Amendment (1804) replaced the original presidential election procedure in Article II, Section 1, after the chaotic 1800 election, giving electors separate ballots for president and vice president.7U.S. Senate. Constitution of the United States
- The Thirteenth Amendment (1865) abolished slavery and rendered the Fugitive Slave Clause in Article IV effectively null.8Constitution Annotated. Fugitive Slave Clause
- The Fourteenth Amendment (1868), in Section 2, replaced the three-fifths formula in Article I by requiring counting “the whole number of persons in each State.”7U.S. Senate. Constitution of the United States
- The Seventeenth Amendment (1913) replaced language in Article I, Section 3 that had senators chosen by state legislatures with direct election by voters.9U.S. Senate. Landmark Legislation: The Seventeenth Amendment to the Constitution
- The Twentieth Amendment (1933) changed the start dates for presidential and congressional terms, superseding the schedule in Articles I and II.7U.S. Senate. Constitution of the United States
Each of these overrode text in the original Constitution. None canceled a prior amendment. Only the Twenty-First Amendment singled out an earlier amendment by name and struck it down entirely.
What Happens to Repealed Text
A repealed amendment is not physically removed from the Constitution. The Eighteenth Amendment still appears in every official printing of the document, exactly as ratified. It carries no legal force. Courts, law enforcement, and legislators treat it as a historical artifact, and any government action relying on it would be invalid. The newer amendment controls.
Why the Count Stays at One
The Constitution has no separate procedure for repeal. Overturning an existing amendment requires passing a new one, which means clearing the same high bar as any other constitutional change under Article V.10Constitution Annotated. ArtV.1 Overview of Article V, Amending the Constitution
Two paths exist for proposal. The standard route requires a two-thirds vote in both the House and the Senate. Every successful amendment has used this method. The alternative allows two-thirds of state legislatures to petition Congress to call a national convention, but that option has never been successfully invoked.10Constitution Annotated. ArtV.1 Overview of Article V, Amending the Constitution
After proposal, ratification requires three-fourths of the states, currently 38 of 50. Congress decides whether states vote through legislatures or specially elected conventions, and most amendments carry a seven-year ratification deadline set in the proposing resolution.11National Archives. Article V, U.S. Constitution
The math explains the rarity. More than 11,000 amendments have been proposed over the course of U.S. history, and only 27 have made it through.12National Archives. Amending America Repeal carries an additional political burden that other amendments do not: it asks the country to admit that an earlier constitutional commitment was a mistake. The Twenty-First Amendment succeeded because opposition to Prohibition had become overwhelming across party lines, geographic regions, and the urban-rural divide. That kind of near-unanimous consensus is what a second repeal would require, and no repeal campaign since has come close to assembling it.