National Minimum Drinking Age Act of 1984
The National Minimum Drinking Age Act of 1984 is a significant piece of legislation aimed at addressing the issue of drunk driving and enhancing road safety in the United States. Spearheaded by advocacy group Mothers Against Drunk Driving (MADD) and supported by the Reagan administration, the act established an indirect method for the federal government to influence state drinking ages by threatening to withhold federal highway funds from states that maintained a drinking age lower than twenty-one. Notably, this law did not create a federal drinking age; rather, it incentivized states to adopt the age of twenty-one for purchasing alcohol.
While the act faced opposition and legal challenges, including a notable Supreme Court case (South Dakota v. Dole) questioning its constitutionality, the court upheld the law, asserting that it promoted the general welfare. As a result, the legislation effectively established twenty-one as the national minimum drinking age, which has remained unchanged since its enactment. Despite this, some states have retained provisions that allow limited underage alcohol consumption, illustrating varying approaches to alcohol regulation across the country. Overall, the act has played a crucial role in shaping the landscape of alcohol consumption, public health, and highway safety in the U.S.
National Minimum Drinking Age Act of 1984
Identification Legislation that pushed states to raise the legal buying age of alcohol to twenty-one
Date Signed on July 17, 1984
By threatening to withhold 10 percent of highway funds from states that did not comply with the law, this legislation forced all states to adopt a drinking age of twenty-one.
Mothers Against Drunk Driving (MADD) believed that raising the age for drinking alcohol to twenty-one would lower the number of drunk drivers and highway fatalities. MADD convinced the Ronald Reagan administration to help, along with Congress, and the National Minimum Drinking Age Act was the result. The federal government technically does not have the power to establish the drinking age, and, indeed, this law did not set one. Instead, the government effectively stated that any state with a drinking age lower than twenty-one would have 10 percent of its highway funds withheld. It should be noted that this age of twenty-one was for buying alcohol, not for consumption, and some states even today have allowances for some underage consumption of alcohol.
There was a variety of opposition to the bill and its enforcement, but none was successful. A lawsuit, South Dakota v. Dole (1987), was filed by South Dakota against the federal Department of Transportation and Secretary of Transportation Elizabeth Dole challenging the tying of highway funds to something relatively unrelated to highways (and within the states’ realm of powers). However, the Supreme Court held that because the act did not require the states to raise their drinking age, it did not go far enough into the realm of state powers to be unconstitutional; since the act, in the eyes of Congress, promoted the generalwelfare, the use of funds was deemed constitutional. The Court overlooked the fact that most states could not afford to go without federal highway funds.
Impact
While the federal government is not legally allowed to establish a drinking age, as that is a power of the states, this leveraged maneuver effectively resulted in a federal drinking age. Since 1984, no states have acted to lower their drinking age, although some have relaxed their enforcement policies.
Bibliography
Gardner, Martin R. Understanding Juvenile Law. Newark, N.J.: LexisNexis, 2003.
Pegram, Thomas R. Battling Demon Rum: The Struggle for a Dry America, 1800-1933. Chicago: Ivan R. Dee, 1998.
U.S. Congress. House. Committee on Public Works and Transportation. Subcommittee on Investigations and Oversight. National Minimum Drinking Age Law: Hearing Before the Subcommittee on Investigations and Oversight of the Committee on Public Works and Transportation, House of Representatives. 99th Congress, 2d session, September 18, 1986.