Amendment XXII
Presidential Term Limits
Ratified February 27, 1951
George Washington's voluntary departure after two terms established a norm that held for 150 years. Franklin Roosevelt's four elections prompted the Twenty-Second Amendment, which codifies term limits as a constitutional constraint rather than a matter of personal character and tradition.
Full Text
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 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 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.
Annotated Version
The Amendments XI–XXVII document includes phrase highlights and court case references for this amendment.
Constitutional Framework
Original Text
U.S. Constitution
Articles I–VII (1787). The three branches, enumerated powers, and the framework these amendments modify.
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Amendments I–X
Bill of Rights
Ratified December 15, 1791. Freedom of religion, speech, press, arms, due process, and more.
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Amendments XI–XXVII
Later Amendments
Ratified 1795–1992. Abolition of slavery, equal protection, women's suffrage, and more.
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