What were the provisions of the twenty-second Amendment to the U.S. Constitution and why was it enacted and ratified?

Answer 1

U.S. Const., Amend. XXII:

"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."

U.S. Const., Amend. XXII, Sec. 1, Cl. 1 places a "term limit" on the office of the President, limiting the number of terms any elected President may serve to two of the prerequisite four-year terms.

U.S. Const., Amend. XXII, Sec. 1, Cl. 2 sets forth that an individual having acceded to the office of President, and having served more than two years, may be elected only to one four-year term. Presumably, then, an individual having served less than two years would be eligible to serve the two terms specified in Cl. 1, as could have occurred as to the Presidency of Lyndon B. Johnson, since he served only fourteen months of what would have been President John Fitzgerald Kennedy's first or only term.

U.S. Const., Amend. XXII, Sec. 1, Cl. 3 is a "sunrise" clause, which had the effect of exempting the then currently-serving President, Harry S. Truman, from the provisions of Cl. 1.

U.S. Const., Amend. XXII, Sec. 2 recognized the U.S. Constitution's Amending Formula contained in U.S. Const., Art. V:

"The Congress, whenever two thirds of both Houses shall deem it necessary, shall propose Amendments to this Constitution, or, on the Application of the Legislatures of two thirds of the several States, shall call a Convention for proposing Amendments, which, in either Case, shall be valid to all Intents and Purposes, as Part of this Constitution, when ratified by the Legislatures of three fourths of the several States or by Conventions in three fourths thereof...."

and added an additional proviso that the Amendment could no longer be ratified by and in the States if a period of seven years elapsed before the legislatures of three-quarters of the States, according to this Amending Formula, had done so. This never became effective, as the Amendment was ratified February 27, 1951, and it is unclear if it ever could have, as the purpose of Sec. 2 would logically have been defeated, as it could have had no force of law until and unless ratified according to the Amending Formula, which contained no seven-year "sunset".

After President Franklin Delano Roosevelt was elected to the office of President of the United States for a third term, the twenty-second Amendment was enacted by the U.S. Congress March 21, 1947. Historians regard this to have happened due to the exigencies of the U.S.' involvement in World War II, and it was the sense of the Congress thereafter that a term limit should be placed on the office; that is, that Presidents serving more than two terms should thenceforth be prohibited under the Constitution.

Answer 2

The amendment to the Bill of Rights passed in 1951. It limits the number of terms a person may serve as president to two. Also, if a person as served more than two years of another's term, then that counts as one. This was done after Franklin Roosevelt (Democrat) was elected to four terms, during the depression and during WWII. Until then, it was a tradition that two terms was the limit - begun by George Washington. The Republicans led the change.