Time limit for ratifying the Eighteenth Amendment
Official text rightpowerlimitif conditionlegal term
This article shall be inoperative unless it shall have been ratified as an amendment to the Constitution by the legislatures of the several States, as provided in the Constitution, within seven years from the date of the submission hereof to the States by the Congress.
Proposal and ratification: The eighteenth amendment to the Constitution of the United States was proposed to the legislatures of the several States by the Sixty-fifth Congress, on the 18th of December, 1917, and was declared, in a proclamation of the Secretary of State, dated the 29th of January, 1919, to have been ratified by the legislatures of 36 of the 48 States. was completed on January 16, 1919.
Simplified explanation
This article is inoperative unless ratified by the legislatures of the several States within seven years from the date of its submission to the States by Congress.