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TheTwenty-second Amendment (Amendment XXII) to theUnited States Constitution limits the number of times a person can be elected to the office ofPresident of the United States to twice, and sets additional eligibility conditions for presidents who succeed to the unexpired terms of their predecessors.[1] Congress approved the Twenty-second Amendment on March 21, 1947, and submitted it to thestate legislatures forratification. That process was completed on February 27, 1951, when the requisite 36 of the 48 states had ratified the amendment (neitherAlaska norHawaii had yet beenadmitted as a state), and its provisionscame into force on that date.
The amendment prohibits anyone who has been elected president twice from being elected to the office again. Under the amendment, someone who fills an unexpired presidential term lasting more than two years is also prohibited from being elected president more than once. Scholars debate whether the amendment prohibits affected individuals from succeeding to the presidency under any circumstances or whether it applies only to presidential elections. Until the amendment's ratification, the president had not been subject toterm limits, but bothGeorge Washington andThomas Jefferson (the first and third presidents) decided not to run for a third term, establishing a two-term tradition. In the1940 and1944 presidential elections,Franklin D. Roosevelt became the only president to be elected for athird and fourth term, giving rise to concerns about a president serving unlimited terms.[2]
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.[3]
The Twenty-second Amendment was a reaction toFranklin D. Roosevelt's election to an unprecedented four terms as president, but presidentialterm limits had long been debated in American politics. Delegates to theConstitutional Convention of 1787 considered the issue extensively (alongside broader questions, such as who would elect the president, and the president's role). Many, includingAlexander Hamilton andJames Madison, supported lifetime tenure for presidents, while others favored fixed terms. Virginia'sGeorge Mason denounced the life-tenure proposal as tantamount toelective monarchy.[4] An early draft of the U.S. Constitution provided that the president was restricted to one seven-year term.[5] Ultimately, the Framers approved four-year terms with no restriction on how many times a person could be elected president.
Though dismissed by the Constitutional Convention, term limits for U.S. presidents were contemplated during the presidencies ofGeorge Washington andThomas Jefferson. As his second term entered its final year in 1796, Washington was exhausted from years of public service, and his health had begun to decline. He was also bothered by his political opponents' unrelenting attacks, which had escalated after the signing of theJay Treaty, and believed he had accomplished his major goals as president. For these reasons, he decided not to run for a third term, a decision he announced to the nation in his September 1796Farewell Address.[6] Eleven years later, as Thomas Jefferson neared the halfway point of his second term, he wrote,
If some termination to the services of the chief magistrate be not fixed by the Constitution, or supplied by practice, his office, nominally for years, will in fact, become for life; and history shows how easily that degenerates into an inheritance.[7]
Since Washington made his historic announcement, numerous academics and public figures have looked at his decision to retire after two terms, and have, according topolitical scientist Bruce Peabody, "argued he had established atwo-term tradition that served as a vital check against any one person, or the presidency as a whole, accumulating too much power".[8] Various amendments aimed at changing informal precedent to constitutional law were proposed in Congress in the early to mid-19th century, but none passed.[4][9] Three of the next four presidents after Jefferson—Madison,James Monroe, andAndrew Jackson—served two terms, and each adhered to the two-term principle;[1]Martin Van Buren was the only president between Jackson andAbraham Lincoln to be nominated for a second term, though he lost the1840 election and so served only one term.[9] At the outset of theCivil War, the seceding states drafted theConstitution of the Confederate States of America, which in most respects resembled the United States Constitution, but limited the president to a single six-year term.
In spite of the strong two-term tradition, a few presidents before Roosevelt attempted to secure a third term. FollowingUlysses S. Grant's reelection in1872, there were serious discussions within Republican political circles about the possibility of his running again in 1876. But interest in a third term for Grant evaporated in the light of negative public opinion and opposition from members of Congress, and Grant left the presidency in 1877 after two terms. Even so, as the 1880 election approached, he sought nomination for a (non-consecutive) third term at the1880 Republican National Convention, but narrowly lost toJames A. Garfield, who won the1880 election.[9]
Theodore Roosevelt succeeded to the presidency on September 14, 1901, followingWilliam McKinley's assassination (194 days into his second term), and was handily elected to a full term in1904. He declined to seek a third (second full) term in 1908, but did run again in the1912 election, losing toWoodrow Wilson. Wilson himself, despite his ill health following a serious stroke, aspired to a third term. Many of his advisers tried to convince him that his health precluded another campaign, but Wilson nonetheless asked that his name be placed in nomination for the presidency at the1920 Democratic National Convention.[10] Democratic Party leaders were unwilling to support Wilson, and the nomination went toJames M. Cox, who lost toWarren G. Harding. Wilson again contemplated running for a (non-consecutive) third term in 1924, devising a strategy for his comeback, but again lacked any support. He died in February of that year.[11]
Franklin Roosevelt spent the months leading up to the1940 Democratic National Convention refusing to say whether he would seek a third term. His vice president,John Nance Garner, along withPostmaster GeneralJames Farley, announced their candidacies for the Democratic nomination. When the convention came, Roosevelt sent a message to the convention saying he would run only ifdrafted, saying delegates were free to vote for whomever they pleased. This message was interpreted to mean he was willing to be drafted, and he was renominated on the convention's first ballot.[9][12] Roosevelt won a decisive victory over RepublicanWendell Willkie, becoming the only president to exceed eight years in office. His decision to seek a third term dominated the election campaign.[13] Willkie ran against the open-ended presidential tenure, while Democrats cited thewar in Europe as a reason for breaking with precedent.[9]
Four years later, Roosevelt faced RepublicanThomas E. Dewey in the1944 election. Near the end of the campaign, Dewey announced his support of a constitutional amendment to limit presidents to two terms. According to Dewey, "four terms, or sixteen years [a direct reference to the president's tenure in office four years hence] is the most dangerous threat to our freedom ever proposed."[14] He also discreetly raised the issue of the president's age. Roosevelt exuded enough energy and charisma to retain voters' confidence and was elected to a fourth term.[15]
While he quelled rumors of poor health during the campaign, Roosevelt's health was deteriorating. On April 12, 1945, only 82 days after hisfourth inauguration,Roosevelt died, and was succeeded by Vice PresidentHarry S. Truman.[16] In themidterm elections 18 months later, Republicans took control of the House and the Senate. As many of them had campaigned on the issue of presidential tenure, declaring their support for a constitutional amendment that would limit how long a person could serve as president, the issue was given priority in the80th Congress when it convened in January 1947.[8]
TheHouse of Representatives took quick action, approving a proposed constitutional amendment (HouseJoint Resolution 27) setting a limit of two four-year terms for future presidents. Introduced byEarl C. Michener, the measure passed 285–121, with support from 47 Democrats, on February 6, 1947.[17] Meanwhile, the Senate developed its own proposed amendment, which initially differed from the House proposal by requiring that the amendment be submitted tostate ratifying conventions for ratification, rather than to the state legislatures, and by prohibiting any person who had served more than 365 days in each of two terms from further presidential service. Both of these provisions were removed when the full Senate took up the bill; however, a new provision was added. Put forward byRobert A. Taft, it clarified procedures governing the number of times a vice president who succeeded to the presidency might be elected to office. The amended proposal was passed 59–23, with 16 Democrats in favor, on March 12.[1][18]
On March 21, the House agreed to the Senate's revisions and approved the resolution to amend the Constitution. Afterward, the amendment imposing term limitations on future presidents was submitted to the states for ratification. The ratification process was completed on February 27, 1951, 3 years, 343 days after it was sent to the states.[19][20]
Once submitted to the states, the 22nd Amendment was ratified by:[3]
Conversely, two states—Massachusetts and Oklahoma—rejected the amendment, while five (Arizona, Kentucky, Rhode Island, Washington, and West Virginia) took no action.[18]
Because of thegrandfather clause in Section 1, the amendment did not apply to Harry S. Truman, who was the incumbent president at the time it was submitted to the states by the Congress. This full exemption allowed Truman to run again in 1952. He had served nearly all of Franklin Roosevelt's unexpired 1945–1949 term and had been elected to a full four-year term beginning in 1949.[13] But with his job approval rating at around 27%,[21][22] and after a poor performance in the1952 New Hampshire primary, Truman chose not to seek his party's nomination. Since becoming operative in 1951, the amendment has barred six twice-elected presidents from election to a third term:Dwight D. Eisenhower,Richard Nixon,Ronald Reagan,Bill Clinton,George W. Bush, andBarack Obama.[23] The incumbent president,Donald Trump, who has been elected to two non-consecutive terms, is also constitutionally barred from being elected to a third presidential term.[24]
As worded, the focus of the 22nd Amendment is on limiting individuals from being elected to the presidency more than twice. Questions have been raised about the amendment's meaning and application, especially in relation to the12th Amendment, ratified in 1804, which states, "But no person constitutionally ineligible to the office of President shall be eligible to that of Vice-President of the United States."[25] While the 12th Amendment stipulates that the constitutional qualifications of age, citizenship, and residency apply to the president and vice president, it is unclear whether someone who is ineligible to be elected president due to term limits could be elected vice president. Because of the ambiguity, a two-term former president could possibly be elected vice president and then succeed to the presidency as a result of the incumbent's death, resignation, or removal from office, or succeed to becomeActing President from another stated office in thepresidential line of succession.[9][26]
It has been argued that the 22nd Amendment and 12th 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 presidential line of succession.[27][28] Others contend that theoriginal intent of the 12th Amendment concerns qualification for service (age, residence, and citizenship), while the 22nd Amendment concerns qualifications for election, and thus a former two-term president is still eligible to serve as vice president. Neither amendment restricts the number of times someone can be elected to the vice presidency and then succeed to the presidency to serve out the balance of the term, although the person could be prohibited from running for election to an additional term.[29][30]
The practical applicability of this distinction has not been tested, as no person has been elected president and vice president in that order, regardless of terms served.[31] However, in striking downterm limits imposed bystate governments on members of Congress inU.S. Term Limits, Inc. v. Thornton (1995), theSupreme Court held that term limits amount to a qualification for holding public officereferencing the 22nd Amendment, stating that "the Nation as a whole... has imposed a limit on the number of terms that the President may serve. Term limits, like any other qualification for office, unquestionably restrict the ability of voters to vote for whom they wish."[32]
Over the years, several presidents have voiced their antipathy toward the amendment. After leaving office, Harry S. Truman described the amendment as stupid and one of the worst amendments of the Constitution with the exception of theProhibition Amendment.[33] A few days before leaving office in January 1989, Ronald Reagan said he would push for a repeal of the 22nd Amendment because he thought it infringed on people's democratic rights.[34] In a November 2000 interview withRolling Stone, Bill Clinton suggested that the 22nd Amendment should be altered to limit presidents to two consecutive terms but then allow for non-consecutive terms, because of longerlife expectancies.[35]
The first efforts in Congress to repeal the 22nd Amendment were undertaken in 1956, five years after the amendment's ratification. Over the next 50 years, 54joint resolutions seeking to repeal the two-term presidential election limit were introduced.[1] Between 1997 and 2013, RepresentativeJosé E. Serrano introduced nine resolutions (one per Congress, all unsuccessful) to repeal the amendment.[36]
In January 2025, RepresentativeAndy Ogles introduced a joint resolution proposing a constitutional amendment that would allow a president to serve a third term, provided that their first two are non-consecutive. The language of the bill was intended to specifically allow incumbent president Donald Trump to serve a third term, as he is the only living president to serve non-consecutive terms.[37][38][39]
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