Why a presidential term limit got written into the Constitution – the story of the 22nd Amendment

Just one particular person, Franklin Delano Roosevelt, has ever served greater than two phrases as president of america. That is for 2 causes.

First, previous to Roosevelt’s election to a 3rd time period in 1940 there was a longstanding American custom that presidents not serve greater than two phrases.

This custom was established by the selections of early presidents such as George Washington, Thomas Jefferson and James Madison not to seek a third term. This custom was later adopted by different presidents.

Second, after Roosevelt died in office in 1945 throughout his fourth time period, Congress and the folks of america determined to show the long-standing custom that presidents mustn’t serve greater than two phrases into part of constitutional legislation.

This was accomplished via the passage and ratification of the 22nd Amendment, which grew to become a part of the U.S. Structure in 1951.

Intent is obvious

The important thing provision of the twenty second Modification reads as follows: “No particular person shall be elected to the workplace of the President greater than twice, and no one who has held the workplace of President, or acted as President, for greater than two years of a time period to which another particular person was elected President shall be elected to the workplace of the President greater than as soon as.”

The intent is obvious. Nobody is meant to serve greater than two full phrases as president.

The one approach somebody can serve greater than two phrases is that if they served lower than two years in a earlier time period during which they weren’t elected president.

Right here’s an instance: If a vp turns into president in the course of the closing yr of a time period as a result of the president died, that vp might nonetheless run for 2 phrases. However that exception remains to be meant to bar anybody from serving greater than a complete of 10 years as president.

It’s value understanding why the two-term custom was thought-about so vital that it was become constitutional legislation the primary time it was violated.

Beginning the custom

Commentators often cite George Washington’s determination to not search a 3rd time period as president as establishing the two-term custom. Political scientist and time period restrict scholar Michael Korzi gives a lot more credit to the nation’s third president, Thomas Jefferson.

Jefferson was outspoken in favor of the two-term custom. As Korzi notes, this was, partially, as a result of “Jefferson noticed little distinction between a long-serving government in an elective place and a hereditary monarch.” In different phrases, a president with out time period limits is an excessive amount of like a king.

Jefferson noticed a president who was keen to interrupt the two-term custom as energy hungry, and he hoped that the American folks wouldn’t elect such a president. This led him to write in his autobiography in 1821 that “ought to a President consent to be a candidate for a 3d. election, I belief he could be rejected on this demonstration of bold views.”

Jefferson additionally anxious that with out time period limits, presidents would keep in workplace too lengthy into their outdated age and after they’d misplaced their skill to control successfully. This led him to write that with out time period limits, there was a hazard that “the indulgence and attachments of the folks will maintain a person within the chair after he turns into a dotard.”

Subsequently, presidents tended to abide by the two-term custom. And within the few instances the place presidents determined to hunt a 3rd time period, their own parties wouldn’t give them the nomination.

That remained true till Roosevelt ran for, and received, both a third and a fourth term as president throughout World Struggle II.

The twenty second Modification

Roosevelt’s violation of the two-term custom prompted Congress and the states to show the custom into a proper matter of constitutional legislation.

A significant concern motivating the modification was the identical one which motivated Jefferson: to forestall a president from changing into a king. A number of members of Congress identified the same concern throughout congressional periods within the Nineteen Forties.

Sen. Chapman Revercomb from West Virginia said that energy given to a president with out time period limits “could be a particular step within the path of autocracy, whatever the identify given the workplace, whether or not it’s president, king, dictator, emperor, or no matter title the workplace could carry.”

Equally, Rep. Edward McCowen from Ohio mentioned that the twenty second Modification could be “an awesome step towards stopping a dictatorship or some totalitarian type of authorities from arising.”

And Rep. John Jennings Jr. from Tennessee said that solely by adoption of the twenty second Modification “can the folks be assured that we will by no means have a dictator on this land.”

Congress passed the 22nd Amendment on March 21, 1947. It took lower than 4 years for the mandatory three-fourths of the states to ratify the modification, which became law on Feb. 27, 1951.

Tyrants and time period restrict violations

Within the Nineteen Eighties, political scientist Juan Linz recognized that presidential methods are less stable than different types of democracy, akin to parliamentary methods. The distinction appears to be that presidential methods focus extra energy within the palms of a single particular person, the president. This makes it simpler to take away the checks and balances that democracies rely upon.

As scholars have noted, violation of presidential time period limits and different strategies of accelerating government energy are a typical type of democratic backsliding – state-led debilitation or elimination of the political establishments that maintain a democracy.

Legislation professor Mila Versteeg and her colleagues have shown that lately presidents across the globe have used varied techniques to attempt to violate presidential time period limits. These techniques embrace attempting to amend their nation’s structure, attempting to get the courts to reinterpret the structure, discovering a alternative chief who the previous president can management as soon as out of workplace and trying to delay elections.

They be aware that more often than not when a president’s try to violate time period limits fails it’s “as a result of the try encountered widespread standard resistance.” They conclude that this discovering implies that “broad resistance actions” could also be the most effective means to forestall violation of presidential time period limits.