Twenty-second Amendment to the United States Constitution

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The Twenty-second Amendment of the United States Constitution sets a term limit for the President of the United States, providing that "No person shall be elected to the office of the President more than twice, and no person who has held the office of President, or acted as President, for more than two years of a term to which some other person was elected President shall be elected to the office of the President more than once." Prior to the adoption of the amendment, the constitution set no limit on the number of presidential terms. The United States Congress proposed the amendment on March 21, 1947. It was ratified by the requisite number of states on February 27, 1951.

Text

Section 1

No person shall be elected to the office of the President more than twice, and no person who has held the office of President, or acted as President, for more than two years of a term to which some other person was elected President shall be elected to the office of the President more than once. But this Article shall not apply to any person holding the office of President when this Article was proposed by the Congress, and shall not prevent any person who may be holding the office of President, or acting as President, during the term within which this Article becomes operative from holding the office of President or acting as President during the remainder of such term.

Section 2

This article shall be inoperative unless it shall have been ratified as an amendment to the Constitution by the legislatures of three-fourths of the several States within seven years from the date of its submission to the States by the Congress.

Term limits

George Washington, the first President of the United States, is often said to have established the tradition of limiting service as President to two terms only. His Farewell Address, however, suggests that it was because of his age that he did not seek re-election. More accurately, one may suggest that Thomas Jefferson established the convention of a two-term limit; he noted, "if some termination to the services of the chief Magistrate be not fixed by the Constitution, or supplied by practice, his office, nominally four years, will in fact become for life". Jefferson’s immediate successors, James Madison and James Monroe, also adhered to the two-term principle.

Few Presidents attempted to serve for more than two terms. Ulysses S. Grant sought a third term in office after serving from 1869 to 1877, but his party failed to nominate him. Theodore Roosevelt, who served from 1901 to 1909, sought to be elected in 1912 (non-consecutively) for a second time—he had succeeded to the presidency on William McKinley's assassination and already been elected in 1904 to a full term himself—but he lost to Woodrow Wilson. In 1940 Franklin Delano Roosevelt became the first person to be elected President three times, with supporters citing the war in Europe as a reason for breaking with precedent. In the 1944 election, during World War II, he won a fourth term, but died in office the following year.

After Franklin Roosevelt's death, many desired to establish a firm constitutional provision barring presidents from being elected more than twice. The rationale was a concern that without limits, the presidential position could become too similar to that of a benevolent dictator lasting not just four years but a lifetime, that the position could become too powerful and upset the separation of powers, and even so powerful that elections would become dispensable. Hence, the Twenty-second Amendment was adopted.

Under the amendment, no person may be elected president more than twice. Furthermore, no vice president or other person who has succeeded to the presidency, and served as president or acting president for more than two years, may be elected president more than once. Consequently, the amendment, while limiting a person to two elected four-year terms as president, theoretically does allow a person to serve up to ten years in office. If a person serving as vice president succeeds to the presidency, and serves for less than two years of the original president's term, he or she may still be elected twice and thus serve a total of ten full years in office.

22nd and 12th Amendments, "eligibility"

Some have questioned the interpretation of the Twenty-second Amendment as it relates to the Twelfth Amendment, ratified in 1804, which provides that anyone constitutionally ineligible to the office of President is ineligible to that of Vice President: "But no person constitutionally ineligible to the office of President shall be eligible to that of Vice-President of the United States."

While it is clear that under the Twelfth Amendment the original constitutional qualifications of age, citizenship, and residency apply to both the President and Vice President, it is unclear if a two-term President could later be elected—or appointed—Vice President. Some argue that the Twenty-second Amendment and Twelfth Amendment bar any two-term President from later serving as Vice President as well as from succeeding to the Presidency from any point in the United States Presidential line of succession. Others contend that that the Twelfth Amendment concerns qualification for service, while the Twenty-second Amendment concerns qualifications for election. Considered opinion though, appears to favour the former view of ineligibility.

Since the ratification of the Twenty-Second Amendment, no two-term President has later sought to become Vice President, and thus, the courts have never had an opportunity to decide the question.

Criticism of amendment

Former U.S. president Bill Clinton has recently voiced his opinion in favor of modifications to the 22nd Amendment. According to President Clinton, former presidents who have already served two terms should be allowed to run for the office again, after some interim period has passed. He reasoned the country may wish to trust leadership onto an already tried and proven candidate in times of great need. Sherman Adams quotes Dwight Eisenhower expressing in a press conference his strong opposition to term limits: "The United States ought to be able to choose for its President anybody it wants, regardless of the number of terms he has served" ("First Hand Report", 1961, p. 296). After leaving office, Ronald Reagan also publicly supported repealing the amendment. Clinton, Eisenhower, and Reagan were affected by the 22nd Amendment, as they all served two terms.

Frequent attempts have been made, in recent years one or more per session of Congress, to modify or repeal the 22nd Amendment; none have yet been successful.

References

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