The regulation of alcohol is left to the states under the Constitution. Yet the federal government in effect requires states to set their legal drinking age at twenty-one. How is this done?

Question

Quizplus · Accepted Answer

The Answer is The regulation of alcohol, including the legal drinking age, is indeed primarily left to the individual states under the Tenth Amendment to the United States Constitution, which reserves to the states all powers not delegated to the federal government. However, the federal government has influenced states to set their legal drinking age at twenty-one through the use of a policy known as the National Minimum Drinking Age Act of 1984.
This act was passed by Congress and signed into law by President Ronald Reagan on July 17, 1984. The law does not directly mandate a national legal drinking age of twenty-one, but it does contain a powerful financial incentive for states to comply. The act stipulates that a portion of federal highway funds will be withheld from any state that does not have a minimum legal drinking age of twenty-one. Specifically, states that did not comply would lose 10% of their federal highway funding.
Since highway funding is a significant source of revenue for states, and is crucial for the maintenance and construction of transportation infrastructure, the potential loss of this funding served as a strong incentive for states to align their drinking age laws with the federal standard. As a result, by 1988, all states had raised their minimum legal drinking age to twenty-one.
This use of conditional federal funding to influence state policy is an example of how the federal government can encourage uniformity in certain laws across the states without directly imposing those laws, thus navigating the balance of power between state and federal authority.

The Regulation of Alcohol Is Left to the States Under