A Woman Directs the Dry Battle
In 1925, the main government official charged with enforcing Prohibition was Mabel Walker Willebrandt, only the second woman ever to serve as U.S. assistant attorney general. New York Times Magazine profiled her for an article.
Journalist A.H. Ulm noted her strong numbers at both DOJ and the Supreme Court:
Last year [1924] there were handled under Mrs. Willebrandt's supervision more than 45,000 criminal cases brought in the federal courts on account of national prohibition... She frequently represented the government in Volstead Act [the main law outlining the specifics of Prohibition] before the Supreme Court, and so far has won nearly all of the cases she has argued.
According to this article from the website of the Mob Museum in Las Vegas, she opposed the policy personally. In her 1925 NYT Mag interview, though, she said that was irrelevant:
"It would be foolish for me to pretend to be a crusader for prohibition as a cult, for I am not. The Eighteenth Amendment and the Volstead Act are laws, and as such they must be enforced. It isn't a question of whether one likes or favors prohibition as a policy."
Willebrandt would serve in the role until 1929. Prohibition would later be repealed by the 21st Amendment, ratified in 1933.
She was the second woman to serve as U.S. assistant attorney general. The first was the triply-alliterative Annette Abbott Adams, from 1920-21. The first woman U.S. attorney general (with no "assistant" in the title) was Janet Reno in 1993.
President Trump's current nominee for the position is also a woman, former Florida AG Pam Bondi. Her Senate Judiciary Committee hearing was held last week, with the committee vote scheduled for next Wednesday. The full Senate will vote at some point after that.
If confirmed, she might be tasked with enforcing alcohol prohibition... but only for Defense Secretary nominee Pete Hegseth.
A Woman Directs the Dry Battle: Mrs. Willebrandt, In Charge of the Legal End of Prohibition, Believes the Law Must Be Enforced Without Fear or Political Favor, to Protect the Nation's Honor
Published: Sunday, January 25, 1925