[PW] Re: Prohibition

[snopes]

<<what happened to the bootleggers who were in jail?  Were they set free 
since the law changed?>>

<Are you sure of this? I'm not so sure of this. Note especially, "the 
repealed legislation no longer applies to the situations it once did, even 
if such situations arose before the law was repealed.">

Technically, "bootlegging" was against the law even before the enaction of 
Prohibition, since bootlegging is, by definition, the illegal production 
and/or distribution of alcohol (an act that was undertaken even in 
pre-Prohibition days for reasons such as evading payment of liquor taxes). 
The thorny legal issue would be whether one could be held accountable for 
violating laws that were temporarily obviated by another, since-repealed 
piece of legislation (particularly since it's unlikely anyone engaged in the 
Prohibition-era alcohol business was paying the liquor taxes that were in 
effect prior to Prohibition).

 - snopes

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