Twenty-second Amendment to the United States Constitution

Amendment XXII in the National Archives

The Twenty-second Amendment (Amendment XXII) of the United States Constitution sets a term limit for the President of the United States. The Congress passed the amendment on March 21, 1947. It was ratified by the requisite number of states on February 27, 1951. The Amendment was the final result of the recommendations of the Hoover Commission which was established by President Harry S. Truman in 1947.

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.

History

Historians point to George Washington's decision not to seek a third term as evidence that the Founders saw a two-term limit as convention and a bulwark against a monarchy; his Farewell Address, however, suggests that it was because of his age that he did not seek reelection. Thomas Jefferson also contributed to the convention of a two-term limit; in 1807 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 four years, will in fact become for life." Jefferson’s immediate successors, James Madison and James Monroe, also adhered to the two-term principle.

Prior to Franklin D. Roosevelt, few Presidents attempted to serve for more than two terms. Ulysses S. Grant sought a third term in 1880 after serving from 1869 to 1877, but narrowly lost his party's nomination. Theodore Roosevelt succeeded to the presidency upon William McKinley's assassination and was elected in 1904 to a full term himself, serving from 1901 to 1909. He sought to be elected to a (non-consecutive) term in 1912 but lost to Woodrow Wilson. In 1940, Franklin D. Roosevelt became the only president to be elected to a third term; supporters cited 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 suffered a cerebral hemorrhage and died in office the following year. Thus, Roosevelt was the only President to have exceeded the limits provided by the Twenty-second Amendment prior to its ratification.

The Amendment was the final result of the recommendations of the Commission on Organization of the Executive Branch of the Government, or more commonly known as the Hoover Commission which was established by President Harry S. Truman in 1947 as a response to the unprecedented four Presidential terms of Franklin D. Roosevelt. Members of the Hoover Commission besides Hoover, were former Postmaster General and F.D.R's campaign manager James Farley, future Secretary of State Dean Acheson, Senator George Aiken of Vermont, Representative Brown, Secretary of Defense James V. Forrestal, Civil Service Commissioner Arthur S. Flemming, former Ambassador Joseph P. Kennedy, political scientist James Kerr Pollock, attorney James H. Rowe, Representative Carter Manasco of Alabama, industrialist George Mead and Senator John L. McClellan of Arkansas. Aiken, Brown, Flemming, Hoover, Mead and Pollock were Republicans.

Criticism

Dwight D. Eisenhower, the first president to whom the amendment applied, expressed concern over the erosion of a second-term president's power and influence, as the president becomes a political lame duck. The term was coined by 18th century English stockbrokers to mean someone who is bankrupt, but later came to mean anyone who has been made weak and ineffective. It now most often applies to politicians who are soon to leave office or are ineligible to run for another term due to legal restriction.

In addition, several congressmen, including Dem. Barney Frank, Dem. José Serrano, Dem. Howard Berman, and Sen. Harry Reid, have introduced legislation to repeal the Twenty-second Amendment, but each resolution died before making it out of its respective committee. There have also been proposals to remove the absolute two term limit and replace it with no more than two consecutive terms.

Interaction with the Twelfth Amendment

There is an open question regarding the interpretation of the Twenty-second Amendment as it relates to the Twelfth Amendment, ratified in 1804, which provides that "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 the Twelfth Amendment concerns qualification for service, while the Twenty-second Amendment concerns qualifications for election, and thus a former two-term president is still eligible to serve as president. Neither theory has ever been tested, as no former President has ever sought the Vice Presidency, and thus the courts have never been required to make a judgment.

Affected individuals

The Amendment prohibits any person who has succeeded to the Presidency and served as President or as Acting President for more than two years of their predecessor's unexpired term from being elected more than once.

The amendment specifically excluded the sitting president (Harry S. Truman) at the time it was proposed by Congress. Truman, who had served most of FDR's unexpired fourth term and who had been elected to a full term in 1948, began a campaign for another term in 1952, but quit after a poor showing in the New Hampshire primary.

Since the Amendment's ratification, the only President who could have served more than two terms under current circumstances was Lyndon B. Johnson. He became President in 1963 when John F. Kennedy was assassinated, served the final 14 months of Kennedy's term, and was elected President in 1964. Had Johnson remained in the race in 1968 and won, he would have served nine years and two months in all when he reached the end of the new term.

Gerald Ford became President on August 9, 1974, and occupied the office for more than two years of Nixon's unexpired term. Thus, had Ford won a full term in 1976 (he lost to Jimmy Carter), he would have been ineligible to run in 1980, despite only being elected once.

The only individuals who have been prohibited from continuing to seek the presidency under the amendment are Bill Clinton, George W. Bush, and before their passing Ronald Reagan, and Dwight D. Eisenhower. Former presidents Jimmy Carter and George H. W. Bush and current President Barack Obama are all eligible to seek the office again.

See also

• Term limits in the United States
• Hoover Commission
• Harry S. Truman
• James Farley
• Franklin D. Roosevelt

References

• Constitution of the United States.
• Bruce G. Peabody and Scott E. Gant (1997). “The Twice and Future President: Constitutional Interstices and the Twenty-Second Amendment,” Minnesota Law Review 83, no. 3. February 1999: 565-635.

External links

• National Archives: Twenty second Amendment
• H.J.RES.5 - The latest bill introduced in Congress proposing to repeal the Twenty second Amendment. There have been many similar proposals introduced in previous Congresses, none of which has been acted on. This proposal remains in committee.
• CRS Annotated Constitution: Twenty second Amendment