Georgetown Center for the Constitution

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 President more than once. But this Article shall not apply to any person holding the office of President when this Article was proposed by 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.

Related Citations

Joel K. Goldstein, History and Constitutional Interpretation: Some Lessons From the Vice Presidency, 69 Ark. L. Rev. 647 (2016).

Discussing the use of history in constitutional interpretation by looking to the Twenty-Second Amendment, among others. Arguing that the real difference in constitutional interpretation is not between those who use and do not use history. Rather, it is between those who focus on the history at ratification versus history as a continuum. Arguing that even though the Amendment did not directly address the vice presidency, it affected it in several ways.

Seth Barrett Tillman & Steven G. Calabresi, The Great Divorce: The Current Understanding of Separation of Powers and the Original Meaning of the Incompatibility Clause, 157 U. Pa. L. Rev. 135 (2008).

Recording a debate between two scholars about the possibility of joint senate-presidential office holding. Looking to provisions referring to the president as an “officer” of the United States and the term “office.” Arguing that the original meaning of office and officer in these amendments bars the joint-office-holding that Tillman prefers.

Saikriskna Bangalore Prakash, Why the Incompatibility Clause Applies to the Office of the President, 4 Duke J. of Const. L & Pub. Pol’y 35 (2009).

Responding to Seth Barrett Tillman’s arguments that a sitting President could serve simultaneously as a member of Congress. Arguing that the Twenty-Second Amendment confirms that the President holds an “office” rather than serves as a public fiduciary, as Tillman claims.

Bruce G. Peabody & Scott E. Gant, The Twice and Future President: Constitutional Interstices and the Twenty-Second Amendment, 83 Minn. L. Rev. 565 (1998).

Arguing that there is a distinction between someone being elected president and serving as president, such that the Twenty-Second Amendment prohibits only the reelection of an already twice-elected president. Exploring the history of the Amendment by looking to the political and legal traditions underlying its text and meaning.

Brendan Barnicle, Congressional Term Limits: Unconstitutional By Initiative, 67 Wash. L. Rev. 415 (1992).

Arguing that congressional term limits are inconsistent with the original intent of the Framers. Contending that the Twenty-Second Amendment’s enactment provides support that federal term limits should be implemented through amendment.

Stephen W. Stathis, The Twenty-Second Amendment: A Practical Remedy or Partisan Maneuver, 7 Const. Comment. 61 (1990).

Exploring whether the Twenty-Second Amendment was needed or was a partisan maneuver. Discussing the debate over presidential tenure from the founding to the mid-19th century, including the effect of George Washington’s retirement on the debate.

Paul G. Willis & George L. Willis, The Politics of the Twenty-Second Amendment, 5 W. Pol. Q. 469 (1952).

Discussing the politics that led to the ratification of the Twenty-Second Amendment. Noting that 270 resolutions to limit eligibility for re-election were introduced in Congress from 1789 to 1947, with the number of resolutions increasing sharply after 1900. Charting the debates during and after Roosevelt served his third and fourth terms in Congress as informative of the Twenty-Second Amendment.