A president may serve how many years?

Answer 1

In the United States, the legal limit is technically 10 years, not 8 as often but erroneously supposed. A President may serve as many as (but not more than) two years of a previous President's term and subsequently be elected to two full terms of his own. These restrictions are imposed by Section 1 of the 22nd Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. Other applicable areas of law concerning presidential succession are set forth in Article I, Section 1, Clause 6 of the Constitution, and by the 25th Amendment (see Related links, below, for more information).

The law is virtually silent on the improbable, but possible, event that a person who has previously served for the maximum ten years in the circumstances described above is subsequently elected, or becomes after appointment by the President, Vice President - and becomes thereafter President upon the death, incapacitation, or resignation of the elected or serving President; in such a sequence of events, a person could presumably serve as many as 14 years - or even more, in the even-more unlikely event that the scenario described should occur more than once.

Of the "recent" Vice Presidents who assumed the Presidency after the death or resignation of their predecessors, President Lyndon B. Johnson ("LBJ") was allowed by law to be elected to 2 terms on his own (although he declined to run a second time after being elected in 1964), while President Gerald R. Ford could only be elected to one more term, as LBJ had served less than 2 years of President John F. Kennedy ("JFK")'s term after JFK was assassinated, while Ford had served more than 2 years of President Richard M. Nixon's second term after Nixon's resignation.

Answer 2

The 22nd Amendment to the U.S. Constitution provides:

"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."

Thus, in the U.S., no one can serve more than 10 years, up to 2 years after replacing a President in mid-term and then 8 years more if elected to two terms thereafter.

In the United States, the legal limit is technically 10 years, not 8 as often but erroneously supposed. A President may serve as many as (but not more than) two years of a previous President's term and subsequently be elected to two full terms of his own. These restrictions are imposed by Section 1 of the 22nd Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. Other applicable areas of law concerning presidential succession are set forth in Article I, Section 1, Clause 6 of the Constitution, and by the 25th Amendment (see Related links, below, for more information). The law is virtually silent on the improbable, but possible, event that a person who has previously served for the maximum ten years in the circumstances described above is subsequently elected, or becomes after appointment by the President, Vice President - and becomes thereafter President upon the death, incapacitation, or resignation of the elected or serving President; in such a sequence of events, a person could presumably serve as many as 14 years - or even more, in the even-more unlikely event that the scenario described should occur more than once.