Amendment XXII

Amendment XXII
“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. But this article shall not apply to any person holding the office of President when this article was proposed by the 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 1 says that no President shall serve more than two terms in office, unless they are currently in their Presidential term at the time Congress drafted the amendment.
Section 2 says that it has to be ratified within 7 years of submission.

This amendment prevents the same President from having too much power over the country as a result of repeatedly being re-elected into office. FDR was the first President to serve more than four years in his term and Congress wanted to make sure that there were no more Presidents who served longer than eight-year terms so with the avid support of the Republican Party, the amendment was passed. It is important to note that the constant struggle is to limit power within government so that is doesn’t become too centralized in one area. The President has the most power in the country, and so it was important to ensure that there were some limitations to what the President can do and a major one has become that he/she only gets to serve for a max 8 years.



I included this video because it shows Franklin Roosevelt, who was the only President to be elected to 4 terms and serve three dying during the fourth term. This amendment was inspired in part, if not, wholly by FDR’s long presidency. Americans do not like to have any one person in power too long because that centralizes power to that one person. In order to avoid that, the length of the Presidential tem was shortened.