We all know that in the United States, each president can only serve for a maximum of two terms. But where did this law come from?
The answer lies with the man we're learning so much about now: FDR.
Franklin Delano Roosevelt was perhaps the most well-loved president in history. His charismatic personality and aggressive economic policies lent themselves to his widespread popularity. FDR was the only U.S. president to serve more than two terms—in fact, he was inaugurated 4 times, serving a total of 13 years in office. He was elected in 1932, 1936, 1940, and once again in 1944, although he passed away on April 12, 1945, just three months after his legendary fourth inauguration.
After FDR's death, Congress decided it would be prudent to limit future presidents to two terms. Hence, the Twenty-Second Amendment to the Constitution in 1947. The amendment states that "no person shall be elected to the office of 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." In other words, no one can be elected twice, and someone who served at least two years of another president's term can be elected only once more.
I was surprised that the two-term limit was imposed relatively recently in history; I had always assumed that it had been in place for much longer.
I hope you found this as interesting as I did, and I'd love to hear your take on it.
Sources:
http://constitutioncenter.org/constitution/the-amendments/amendment-22-presidential-term-limits
http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/fdr-inaugurated-to-fourth-term
http://history1900s.about.com/od/people/a/fdr_2.htm
Awesome Post! We know why the 22nd amendment was created and that some people must have been against this, but it still passed. While researching I found out that some people have even tried to repeal this amendment. 21 such efforts have been recorded in the past 20 years alone. In the latest effort Jose Serano introduced a legislation that looked like an attempt to repeal the 22nd amendment. The Republicans flipped out thinking that the Democrats were trying to get Obama president for life or something. It's interesting to realize that this is still a minor debate today after it has been set in stone for so long.
ReplyDeleteIt's all here at http://www.sodahead.com/united-states/did-you-know-leaders-have-tried-to-repeal-the-22nd-amendment-limiting-presidential-term-limits/question-1583883/
Nice post Sierra! From what I know, before FDR it was a verbally upheld law. The precedent was created by George Washington who didn't run for a third term as president. This became an unwritten rule and was followed by all following presidents because the presidents feared they would be viewed as autocratic because of it. An example of this is Teddy Roosevelt. He didn't run for his official second term because he had basically already run for two with his predecessor's early death. He didn't want to ruin his reputation and break the precedent so he didn't run. Although he did run later, but he didn't run for the immediate next term because of this. Like you said, FDR did run for third and fourth terms and won. After his passing, Congress realized the danger of presidents being able to have more than two terms so they passed the 22th Amendment.
ReplyDeleteAn interesting fact about the 22nd amendment: there's a little bit of a loophole/controversy in it, which revolves around the vice presidency. There's been a lot of debate about whether or not a president who served two terms would later be eligible to run as vice president. It has to do with the twelfth amendment, which says anyone who is ineligible for the presidency is also ineligible for the vice presidency. Does this mean that since a two-term president can't be president again they can't be vice president either? Some argue yes, while others argue that the twelfth amendment only applies to qualifications for service, while the twenty second deals with election. This issue has actually never been resolved because a two-term president has never run for vice presidency, which means a ruling has never been made.
ReplyDeleteSome clarification about service vs election: this would mean that a two-term president could technically serve as president again, but he just couldn't run for president. This would mean that if he was Vice President and the president died or stepped down, the two-term president would then have to serve as president again, and it would be okay. Again, there's a lot of gray area around it all, so we'll just have to wait to see if a ruling is ever made.
DeleteThis is a great post! But I wonder why Congress decided to pass this law after FDR. Were there underlying reasons for why they set a limit just because one president spent many years in office. Did Congress get sick of the president, or did they just feel like it was too long of a time for any person to hold power?
ReplyDeleteTo provide a (potential) answer to Rachel's question:
ReplyDeleteWhen Roosevelt ran for his third term in 1940, the opposing Republican party brought up the issue of a president serving for more than two terms, supposedly to decrease Roosevelt's support and give Republican candidate Wendell Wilkie a better chance of winning. It worked to some extent, as several key supporters left Roosevelt's campaign in protest of his third term. However, talk of an amendment to limit presidential terms didn't begin until 1944 when Republican candidate Thomas Dewey said that Roosevelt's reelection would be a threat to democracy. This scared a lot of people, and in March 1947 a Republican-controlled Congress approved the 22nd Amendment.
Hope this answered your question!
http://blog.constitutioncenter.org/2014/11/fdrs-third-term-decision-and-the-22nd-amendment/
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