Why a presidential time period restrict bought written into the Structure – the story of the twenty second Modification

Just one individual, Franklin Delano Roosevelt, has ever served greater than two phrases as president of the USA. That is for 2 causes.

First, previous to Roosevelt’s election to a 3rd time period in 1940 there was a longstanding American custom that presidents not serve greater than two phrases.

This custom was established by the selections of early presidents reminiscent of George Washington, Thomas Jefferson and James Madison to not search a 3rd time period. This custom was later adopted by different presidents.

Second, after Roosevelt died in workplace in 1945 throughout his fourth time period, Congress and the folks of the USA determined to show the long-standing custom that presidents shouldn’t serve greater than two phrases into part of constitutional legislation.

This was accomplished via the passage and ratification of the twenty second Modification, which grew to become a part of the U.S. Structure in 1951.

Intent is evident

The important thing provision of the twenty second Modification reads as follows: “No individual shall be elected to the workplace of the President greater than twice, and no one that has held the workplace of President, or acted as President, for greater than two years of a time period to which another individual was elected President shall be elected to the workplace of the President greater than as soon as.”

The intent is evident. Nobody is meant to serve greater than two full phrases as president.

The one approach somebody can serve greater than two phrases is that if they served lower than two years in a earlier time period through which they weren’t elected president.

Right here’s an instance: If a vp turns into president in the course of the ultimate 12 months of a time period as a result of the president died, that vp may nonetheless run for 2 phrases. However that exception continues to be meant to bar anybody from serving greater than a complete of 10 years as president.

It’s price understanding why the two-term custom was thought-about so vital that it was become constitutional legislation the primary time it was violated.

Beginning the custom

Commentators usually cite George Washington’s choice to not search a 3rd time period as president as establishing the two-term custom. Political scientist and time period restrict scholar Michael Korzi provides much more credit score to the nation’s third president, Thomas Jefferson.

Jefferson was outspoken in favor of the two-term custom. As Korzi notes, this was, partly, as a result of “Jefferson noticed little distinction between a long-serving government in an elective place and a hereditary monarch.” In different phrases, a president with out time period limits is an excessive amount of like a king.

Jefferson noticed a president who was keen to interrupt the two-term custom as energy hungry, and he hoped that the American folks wouldn’t elect such a president. This led him to write in his autobiography in 1821 that “ought to a President consent to be a candidate for a 3d. election, I belief he can be rejected on this demonstration of formidable views.”

Jefferson additionally nervous that with out time period limits, presidents would keep in workplace too lengthy into their outdated age and after that they had misplaced their potential to manipulate successfully. This led him to jot down that with out time period limits, there was a hazard that “the indulgence and attachments of the folks will preserve a person within the chair after he turns into a dotard.”

Subsequently, presidents tended to abide by the two-term custom. And within the few instances the place presidents determined to hunt a 3rd time period, their very own events wouldn’t give them the nomination.

That remained true till Roosevelt ran for, and gained, each a 3rd and a fourth time period as president throughout World Conflict II.

The twenty second Modification

Roosevelt’s violation of the two-term custom prompted Congress and the states to show the custom into a proper matter of constitutional legislation.

A serious concern motivating the modification was the identical one which motivated Jefferson: to forestall a president from changing into a king. A number of members of Congress recognized the identical concern throughout congressional periods within the Nineteen Forties.

Sen. Chapman Revercomb from West Virginia acknowledged that energy given to a president with out time period limits “can be a particular step within the route of autocracy, whatever the title given the workplace, whether or not it’s president, king, dictator, emperor, or no matter title the workplace might carry.”

Equally, Rep. Edward McCowen from Ohio mentioned that the twenty second Modification can be “an incredible step towards stopping a dictatorship or some totalitarian type of authorities from arising.”

And Rep. John Jennings Jr. from Tennessee acknowledged that solely by adoption of the twenty second Modification “can the folks be assured that we will by no means have a dictator on this land.”

Congress handed the twenty second Modification on March 21, 1947. It took lower than 4 years for the mandatory three-fourths of the states to ratify the modification, which grew to become legislation on Feb. 27, 1951.

Tyrants and time period restrict violations

Within the Eighties, political scientist Juan Linz recognized that presidential programs are much less steady than different types of democracy, reminiscent of parliamentary programs. The distinction appears to be that presidential programs focus extra energy within the palms of a single individual, the president. This makes it simpler to take away the checks and balances that democracies rely on.

As students have famous, violation of presidential time period limits and different strategies of accelerating government energy are a standard type of democratic backsliding – state-led debilitation or elimination of the political establishments that maintain a democracy.

Legislation professor Mila Versteeg and her colleagues have proven that in recent times presidents across the globe have used varied ways to attempt to violate presidential time period limits. These ways embody making an attempt to amend their nation’s structure, making an attempt to get the courts to reinterpret the structure, discovering a alternative chief who the previous president can management as soon as out of workplace and making an attempt to delay elections.

They notice that more often than not when a president’s try and violate time period limits fails it’s “as a result of the try encountered widespread fashionable resistance.” They conclude that this discovering implies that “broad resistance actions” could also be one of the best means to forestall violation of presidential time period limits.