Willis–Campbell Act

The Willis–Campbell Act of 1921 was a piece of legislation in the United States intended to clarify and tighten regulations around the medicinal use of alcohol during Prohibition. The law, sponsored by Republican Sen. Frank B. Willis of Ohio and Rep. Philip P. Campbell of Kansas, specified that only "spirituous and vinous liquors" (i.e. spirits and wine, thus excluding beer) could be prescribed medicinally, reduced the maximum amount of alcohol per prescription to half a pint, and limited doctors to 100 prescriptions for alcohol per 90-day period. It was commonly known as the "beer emergency bill".[1][2]

Willis–Campbell Act

Other short titles	Alcoholic Liquor Traffic Act Beer Emergency Bill National Prohibition Definition Act Supplementary Volstead Act
Long title	An Act Supplemental to the National Prohibition Act.
Nicknames	National Prohibition Supplemental Act of 1921
Enacted by	the 67th United States Congress
Effective	November 23, 1921
Citations
Public law	Pub. L.Tooltip Public Law (United States) 67–96
Statutes at Large	42 Stat. 222
Codification
Titles amended	27 U.S.C.: Intoxicating Liquors
U.S.C. sections amended	27 U.S.C. ch. 1 §§ 2,3,5
Legislative history
Introduced in the House as H.R. 7294 by Philip P. Campbell (R–KS) on June 2, 1921 Committee consideration by House Judiciary, Senate Judiciary, House Rules Passed the House on June 27, 1921 (268-102) Passed the Senate on August 8, 1921 (46-21) Reported by the joint conference committee on August 16, 1921; agreed to by the House on August 23, 1921 (agreed) and by the Senate on November 18, 1921 (62-24) Signed into law by President Warren G. Harding on November 23, 1921
Major amendments
Medicinal Liquor Prescriptions Act of 1933
United States Supreme Court cases
Lambert v. Yellowley

The Act kept in force all anti-liquor tax laws that had been in place prior to the passage of the Volstead Act in 1919, giving authorities the right to choose whether or not to prosecute offenders under prohibition laws or revenue laws, but at the same time guaranteeing bootleggers that they would not be prosecuted in both ways.