Amendment XXII
Ratified: February 27, 1951
Summary
Limits the president to two terms in office.
Full Text
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.
History and Context
For 150 years, the two-term limit for presidents was an unwritten rule, a tradition established by George Washington and followed by every president until Franklin D. Roosevelt. FDR shattered that tradition by winning a third and then a fourth term. Following his death, the Republican-controlled Congress, reacting against his long tenure and the growth of executive power, passed the Twenty-second Amendment. It constitutionalized Washington's two-term precedent, formally limiting future presidents to two elected terms. It was a check on the power of any single individual and a reassertion of the principle of rotation in office.