An Overview of the 22nd Amendment

What is the 22nd Amendment?

“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.”

The 22nd Amendment Defined

Date Proposed

The 22nd Amendment was passed on March 21st, 1947

Date Passed

The 22nd Amendment was ratified on February 27th, 1951

President of the United States

Harry Truman was the President of the United States during the ratification of the 22nd Amendment

Stipulations of the 22nd Amendment

The 22nd Amendment institutes a limit on the amount of time in office that the President of the United States is allowed

The terms of individual presidency are not to exceed 2 consecutive terms

The 22nd Amendment does not address the legal, administrative permission granted to a President of the United States to run for the office of Vice Presidency; as of 2011, no former President has ever campaigned for Vice Presidency

The limit of presidential terms was expressed by the Founding Fathers of the Constitution; they had expressed that mandatory limits would eliminate the prospect of a Monarchy

Presidential terms are 4-years long

22nd Amendment Facts

Dwight Eisenhower was the first President-elect to serve subsequent to the passing of the 22nd Amendment; he expressed dissatisfaction with regard to the amendment, stating that a finite amount of time allowed to serve compromised a President’s perceived reputability during the final months of office

Franklin D. Roosevelt was the only President to exceed 2 terms of office; historians credit this to circumstances surrounding the United States’ participation in World War II

States Ratifying the 22nd Amendment

1. Alabama

2. Arizona

3. Arkansas

4. California

5. Colorado

6. Connecticut

7. Delaware

8. Florida

9. Georgia

10. Idaho

11. Illinois

12. Indiana

13. Iowa

14. Kansas

15. Kentucky

16. Louisiana

17. Maine

18. Maryland

19. Michigan

20. Minnesota

21. Missouri

22. Montana

23. Nebraska

24. Nevada

25. New Hampshire

26. New Jersey

27. New Mexico

28. New York

29. North Carolina

30. North Dakota

31. Ohio

32. Oregon

33. Pennsylvania

34. Rhode Island

35. South Carolina

36. South Dakota

37. Tennessee

38. Texas

39. Utah

40. Vermont

41. Virginia

42. Washington

43. West Virginia

44. Wisconsin

45. Wyoming

States Not Participatory in the Ratification of the 22nd Amendment

1. Massachusetts

2. Oklahoma

Statutes Associated with the 22nd Amendment

The term(s) of individual President-elects appointed to Presidency as a result of a vacancy will be considered a full term regardless of the fact that the amount of time served was fewer than 4 years.