Twenty-second Amendment to the United States Constitution
The Twenty-second Amendment (Amendment XXII) to the United States Constitution limits the number of times a person can be elected to the office of President of the United States to two terms, and sets additional eligibility conditions for presidents who succeed to the unexpired terms of their predecessors.
Scholars debate whether the amendment prohibits affected individuals from succeeding to the presidency under any circumstances or whether it applies only to presidential elections.
Many, including Alexander Hamilton and James Madison, supported lifetime tenure for presidents, while others favored fixed terms.
He was also bothered by his political opponents' unrelenting attacks, which had escalated after the signing of the Jay Treaty, and believed he had accomplished his major goals as president.
[7]Since Washington made his historic announcement, numerous academics and public figures have looked at his decision to retire after two terms, and have, according to political scientist Bruce Peabody, "argued he had established a two-term tradition that served as a vital check against any one person, or the presidency as a whole, accumulating too much power".
[8] Various amendments aimed at changing informal precedent to constitutional law were proposed in Congress in the early to mid-19th century, but none passed.
Many of his advisers tried to convince him that his health precluded another campaign, but Wilson nonetheless asked that his name be placed in nomination for the presidency at the 1920 Democratic National Convention.
[10] Democratic Party leaders were unwilling to support Wilson, and the nomination went to James M. Cox, who lost to Warren G. Harding.
[11] Franklin Roosevelt spent the months leading up to the 1940 Democratic National Convention refusing to say whether he would seek a third term.
His vice president, John Nance Garner, along with Postmaster General James Farley, announced their candidacies for the Democratic nomination.
[9][12] Roosevelt won a decisive victory over Republican Wendell Willkie, becoming the only president to exceed eight years in office.
[13] Willkie ran against the open-ended presidential tenure, while Democrats cited the war in Europe as a reason for breaking with precedent.
On April 12, 1945, only 82 days after his fourth inauguration, he suffered a cerebral hemorrhage and died, to be succeeded by Vice President Harry Truman.
[18] Because of the grandfather clause in Section 1, the amendment did not apply to Harry S. Truman, who was the incumbent president at the time it was submitted to the states by the Congress.
[13] But with his job approval rating at around 27%,[21][22] and after a poor performance in the 1952 New Hampshire primary, Truman chose not to seek his party's nomination.
Since becoming operative in 1951, the amendment has barred six twice-elected presidents from election to a third term: Dwight D. Eisenhower, Richard Nixon, Ronald Reagan, Bill Clinton, George W. Bush, and Barack Obama.
[31] A few days before leaving office in January 1989, President Ronald Reagan said he would push for a repeal of the 22nd Amendment because he thought it infringed on people's democratic rights.
[34] Repeal has also been supported by Representatives Barney Frank and David Dreier, and Senators Mitch McConnell[35] and Harry Reid.
[36] In January 2025, Representative Andy Ogles introduced a joint resolution proposing that the 22nd Amendment be altered to allow a president to serve a third term, provided that their first two are non-consecutive.
