Repeal of Prohibition (1933)
The 21st Amendment repealed the 18th Amendment's nationwide alcohol ban, in effect since 1920. It handed each state authority to set its own rules for producing and selling alcohol.
States passed licensing systems controlling who could sell alcohol and where.
California's current license classes, including the type 21 off-sale permit, descend directly from this return of alcohol control to the states.
Explains why a neighborhood liquor store needs a state license at all, the legal architecture this approval sits inside.
