Did the feds (and local agencies, I suppose) ever bust Joe Lawbreaker and prosecute him simply for possessing a bottle of hooch? Or did they just go after the producers/distributors/etc.?
No, because the 18th amendment banned “…the manufacture, sale, or transportation of intoxicating liquors…”
Possession and use was not prohibited, though the wording of the amendment might have put one in jeopardy you you were carrying a bottle from one place to another, but ‘transportation’ refers to commercial transportation.
Simply having a bottle of Scotch? No.
The Volstead act prohibited possession of alcohol, although possession in a private residence was allowed. A PBS documentary on Prohibition indicated that several private “clubs” stocked liquor for future consumption. Many still had inventory when Prohibition ended.
[QUOTE=Volstead Act ]
SEC. 3. No person shall on or after the date when the eighteenth amendment to the Constitution of the United States goes into effect, manufacture, sell, barter, transport import, export, deliver, furnish or possess my intoxicating liquor except as authorized in this Act, and all the provisions of this Act shall be liberally construed to the end that the use of intoxicating liquor as a beverage may be prevented.
SEC. 21. Any room, house, building, boat, vehicle, structure, or place where intoxicating liquor is manufactured, sold, kept, or bartered in violation of this title, and all intoxicating liquor and property kept and used in maintaining the same, is hereby declared to be a common nuisance, and any person who maintains such a common nuisance shall be guilty of a misdemeanor and upon conviction thereof shall be fined not more than $1,000 or be imprisoned for not more than one year, or both…
SEC. 25. It shall be unlawful to have or possess any liquor or property designed for the manufacture of liquor intended for use in violating this title or which has been so used, and no property rights shall exist in any such liquor or property… No search warrant shall issue to search any private dwelling occupied as such unless it is being used for the unlawful sale of intoxicating liquor, or unless it is in part used for some business purposes such as a store, shop, saloon, restaurant, hotel, or boarding house…
[/QUOTE]
But would that be Constitutional if possession is not indicated in the 18th Amendment?