The 22nd Amendment was ratified on February 27, 1951, when Nevada became the 36th state to approve it and crossed the three-fourths threshold required to amend the Constitution.1National Constitution Center. 22nd Amendment – Two-Term Limit on Presidency Congress had proposed it nearly four years earlier, on March 21, 1947. The amendment caps presidential service at two elected terms.
From Proposal to Ratification
Under Article V of the Constitution, three-fourths of the states must ratify a proposed amendment before it takes effect. In 1947 there were 48 states, so the threshold was 36.2Congress.gov. U.S. Constitution – Twenty-Second Amendment
Maine ratified first, on March 31, 1947, with Michigan following the same day. Several more states approved it quickly that spring, then the pace slowed as legislatures weighed the implications. Nevada pushed the count to 36 on February 26, 1951, and the amendment was certified as ratified the following day. Five additional states approved it afterward, bringing the final total to 41 out of 48. Seven states never ratified it.3Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington. 2 Presidential Terms, 41 States: The Ratification of the 22nd Amendment
Why Congress Proposed It
George Washington set the precedent of stepping down after two terms, and every president for the next 150 years followed it voluntarily. Franklin D. Roosevelt broke the tradition in 1940 by winning a third term, then again in 1944 with a fourth. He died 82 days into that fourth term.4FDR Presidential Library & Museum. Franklin D. Roosevelt’s Presidency
When Republicans regained control of Congress in the 1946 midterms, formalizing a two-term limit became an early priority. The 80th Congress passed the proposal on March 21, 1947. Democrats at the time called the effort “anti-Roosevelt.” Supporters framed it as a structural safeguard against any future president accumulating too much power through repeated reelection.5The Heritage Guide to the Constitution. The Presidential Term Limits Amendment
What the Amendment Actually Limits
The core rule is short: no person can be elected president more than twice.2Congress.gov. U.S. Constitution – Twenty-Second Amendment The two terms do not have to be consecutive. Grover Cleveland served as the 22nd and 24th president with a four-year gap between his terms, and that arrangement would still be permitted, provided the person has not already been elected twice.
One nuance often missed: the amendment restricts election to the presidency, not service in the office. According to Congressional Research Service analysis, the prohibition “would not prevent someone who had twice been elected President from succeeding to the office after having been elected or appointed Vice President.”6Congress.gov. Twenty-Second Amendment – Presidential Term Limits During drafting, broader language that would have barred a two-term president from serving under any circumstances was specifically rejected.
The Two-Year Succession Rule
The calculation gets more complicated when someone reaches the presidency through succession rather than election. A vice president who takes over after a president dies, resigns, or is removed has to account for how much of that inherited term they served.
The dividing line is two years. If the successor serves more than two years of someone else’s term, that counts as one of their two allowed elections, and they can be elected only once more on their own.2Congress.gov. U.S. Constitution – Twenty-Second Amendment If they serve two years or less of the inherited term, it does not count, and they remain eligible for two full elections.5The Heritage Guide to the Constitution. The Presidential Term Limits Amendment
The practical effect is a maximum possible service of roughly ten years for any one person. A vice president who takes over with 23 months left on a predecessor’s term falls under the two-year line, so it doesn’t count, and they can then win two elections and serve eight more years. The Senate Judiciary Committee designed this compromise deliberately, on the view that blocking someone who had served only a few days or months as president from ever winning two elections of their own would be unfair.
The Truman Carve-Out
The amendment included a grandfather clause for the sitting president at the time Congress proposed it. The text states that the restriction “shall not apply to any person holding the office of President when this article was proposed by the Congress.”7Legal Information Institute. 22nd Amendment That person was Harry Truman, who had become president in April 1945 after Roosevelt’s death and won election in his own right in 1948.
Truman was legally free to run again in 1952 despite having already served most of Roosevelt’s fourth term plus his own full term. He chose not to. Dwight Eisenhower, who won in 1952, became the first president actually constrained by the 22nd Amendment when he was barred from seeking a third term in 1960.
One Question the Amendment Left Open
Whether a two-term former president could serve as vice president has never been resolved. The 12th Amendment says that “no person constitutionally ineligible to the office of President shall be eligible to that of Vice-President.”8Constitution Annotated. Twelfth Amendment Scholars have pointed out that the 22nd Amendment bars only election to the presidency, not holding the office, so a two-term president is ineligible to be elected but arguably not “constitutionally ineligible to the office” in the sense the 12th Amendment uses. The situation has never come up in practice, and no court has ruled on it.