Twenty-second Amendment (Amendment XXII)

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, 1951. 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 1969.

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 re-election. 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.

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.

According to historian Glenn W. LaFantasie of Western Kentucky University, "ever since 1985, when Ronald Reagan was serving in his second term as president, there have been repeated attempts to repeal the 22nd Amendment, this proposal has failed repeatedly in Congress, although it is still introduced over and over again. In addition, several Democratic congressmen, including Rep. Barney Frank, Rep. José Serrano, Rep. 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.

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.