Presidential Term Limits
22nd Amendment to the United States Constitution
What does the Presidential Term Limits mean?
The Twenty-Second Amendment limits the President to two terms in office. A person who has served more than two years of another president's term can only be elected once on their own. The amendment was proposed after Franklin D. Roosevelt won four consecutive presidential elections, breaking the two-term tradition established by George Washington.
Source: U.S. Const. amend. 22
Original Text
“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.”
Plain-English Explanation
The Twenty-Second Amendment limits the President to two terms in office. A person who has served more than two years of another president's term can only be elected once on their own. The amendment was proposed after Franklin D. Roosevelt won four consecutive presidential elections, breaking the two-term tradition established by George Washington.
The amendment codified what had been an informal norm since Washington's presidency. It does not prevent a former two-term president from serving as Vice President and potentially succeeding to the presidency, though this scenario remains legally debated.
Key Doctrines
Landmark Cases
No major Supreme Court cases
(1951)The Twenty-Second Amendment has not been the subject of significant Supreme Court litigation, though scholars debate edge cases such as whether a term-limited president could serve as Vice President.
Exam Relevance
The Twenty-Second Amendment appears in constitutional structure questions about executive power, presidential succession, and the formal versus informal constitutional order. Understand its relationship to the Twenty-Fifth Amendment and the broader debate about presidential power.
Modern Applications
- Periodic proposals to repeal the amendment and allow more than two terms
- Debate over whether a two-term president can serve as Vice President
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