Twenty-Second Amendment - Presidential Term Limits
Presidents can serve only two terms. FDR won four elections (1932, 1936, 1940, 1944) and died in office on [April 12, 1945](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Death_and_state_funeral_of_Franklin_D._Roosevelt). Congress proposed this limit on [March 24, 1947](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twenty-second_Amendment_to_the_United_States_Constitution). It became law on [February 27, 1951](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twenty-second_Amendment_to_the_United_States_Constitution).
Original 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 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.
No person can be elected president more than twice. The rule applies to elections—not simply to years in office—and succession is treated differently from election.
The partial-term rule: if you served more than two years finishing out a predecessor's term as president, that partial term counts as one of your two elections. A vice president who succeeds a president and serves more than two years can be elected only once more. Maximum theoretical service: slightly less than 10 years.
If you served two years or less finishing a predecessor's term, that partial term doesn't count—you can still be elected twice on your own. A vice president who takes over in the last two years of a term starts with a clean slate on the two-election limit.
The amendment bars being "elected" more than twice. Someone who reaches the presidency solely through succession—never winning a presidential election—faces no two-election limit under the amendment's text, though this scenario has never arisen.
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Historical Context
George Washington set the two-term norm in 1797 by voluntarily stepping down after two terms. Every president followed it for 132 years—not because the Constitution required it, but because Washington's example established that self-imposed limits were essential to republican government. Franklin Roosevelt broke the norm. He won four consecutive elections—[1932, 1936, 1940, and 1944](https://constitution.congress.gov/browse/amendment-22/)—citing the Depression and then World War II as justifications for continuity. He died in office on April 12, 1945, just 82 days into his fourth term. Republicans, shut out of the presidency for 20 years, won Congress in 1946 and moved immediately to constitutionalize Washington's norm. The House passed the amendment 285-121 in February 1947; states ratified the Twenty-Second Amendment on [February 27, 1951](https://constitution.congress.gov/browse/amendment-22/). Harry Truman, already president when the amendment was ratified, was exempt under a grandfather clause. He chose not to run in 1952. Dwight Eisenhower became the first president legally barred from seeking a third term. The framers of the amendment targeted repeated election—the concern was that a president could accumulate popular mandates indefinitely. The succession scenario (reaching the presidency without winning a presidential election) was treated as less dangerous and left unaddressed.
How This Shows Up Today
- Prevented Reagan, Clinton, Obama from third terms
- Lame duck effect in second terms
- Debates over congressional term limits
Discussion Questions4
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