The Twenty-second Amendment
Presidential term limits
Limits a President to two elected terms, with a rule for Vice Presidents who take over mid-term.
Ratified 1951 · 3 minute read
Published by Quasi-Legal Institute · Report an error
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.
In plain language
Two elected terms
A person can win the presidency in at most two elections. Terms are four years, so two elected terms is eight years.
Why it was passed
George Washington stepped down after two terms in 1797, and for roughly 140 years afterward Presidents followed his example as a custom. Franklin D. Roosevelt broke it. He was elected four times, in 1932, 1936, 1940, and 1944, and died in office in April 1945.
Congress proposed the amendment in 1947, and it was ratified in 1951. The text says it did not apply to the President in office when it was proposed, Harry Truman, who chose not to run again in 1952.
An open question
The amendment bars a person from being elected President a third time. It does not say whether a twice-elected President could become Vice President and then succeed to the presidency. The Twelfth Amendment says that anyone “constitutionally ineligible” to be President is ineligible to be Vice President, and scholars disagree about whether a former two-term President fits that description.
No court has decided the question, so it remains unresolved.