The Twenty-second Amendment to the United States Constitution was an addition to the United States Constitution that put a limit on how many times a person could be elected to be President. A person is limited to being elected twice, or once if they have already served more than two years as President. Congress passed the amendment on March 1947. It was ratified on February 27, 1951.
History
The President of the United States is elected to have that position for a period, or "term", that lasts for four years. The Constitution had no limit on how many times a person could be elected as president. The nation’s first president, George Washington chose not to try to be elected for a third term. This suggested that two terms were enough for any president. Washington’s two-term limit became the unwritten rule for all Presidents until 1940.
In 1940, President Franklin D. Roosevelt won a third term. He also won a fourth term in 1944. Roosevelt was president through the Great Depression of the 1930s and almost all of World War II. He held approval ratings in the mid-50% to the low 60% ranges over his many years in office. Roosevelt died of a cerebral hemorrhage in April 1945, just months after the start of his fourth term. Soon after, Republicans in Congress began the work of creating Amendment XXII. Roosevelt was the first and only President to serve more than two terms.
The amendment was passed by Congress in 1947, and was ratified by the states on 27 February 1951. The Twenty-Second Amendment says a person can only be elected to be president two times for a total of eight years. It does make it possible for a person to serve up to ten years as president. This can happen if a person (most likely the Vice-President) takes over for a president who can no longer serve their term. If this person serves two years or less of the preceding President’s term, they may serve for two more four-year terms. If they served more than two years of the last President's term, the new President can serve only one full four-year term. Under the language of the amendment, the President at the time of its ratification (Harry S. Truman) was exempt from the two-term limitation. Truman served nearly all of Roosevelt's unexpired fourth term and then was elected President once, serving his own four year term.
Criticism and problems
Since 1985, there have been many attempts to either change or remove this amendment. This began when Ronald Reagan was serving his second term as President. Since then, changes have been tried from both Democrats and Republicans. No changes have been made.
There is some debate about how this amendment works with the 12th Amendment. The 12th Amendment limits who can become Vice-President to only people who meet the requirements of being President. The central question in this debate is whether the 22nd Amendment is imposing requirements on eligibility for holding the office of President or if it is merely imposing requirements on being elected to the office of President.
One side of the debate argues that the 22nd Amendment explicitly uses the language "No person shall be elected" and is therefore issuing guidance on elections. The existence of other means of assuming the office (as enumerated in the 20th Amendment, Section 3 and the 25th Amendment) lends support to this argument.
The other side of the debate argues that the 12th Amendment, in describing how elections are to be carried out, is enumerating additional requirement for holding the office of President. In support of this side of the argument is the fact that the requirements for holding the office of President are not restricted to Article 2 (where the main requirements like age and citizenship are listed). For example, impeachment is described in Article 1, Section 3 and upon impeachment, conviction, and removal from office a person becomes ineligible to hold the office in the future. Similarly, the 14th Amendment establishes a requirement that a President must not have fought against the United States or given aid and comfort to its enemies. These amendments suggest a pattern of enumerating additional requirements for the presidency and proponents of this side of the debate would argue that the 22nd Amendment was intended to add yet another requirement.
Since no president who has served two terms has ever tried to be vice-president, this situation has not yet been decided by the courts.