CREATORS
February 3, 2025
The 22nd Amendment provides, "No person shall be
elected to the office of the President more than twice ..." The 22nd
Amendment is under attack. President Donald Trump has openly discussed the
possibility of seeking a third term. Rep. Andy Ogles (R-Tenn.) recently
introduced a House Joint Resolution to amend the Constitution of the United
States to allow a president to be elected for up to but no more than three
terms.
Ogles proudly announced in a press release that his proposal
"[W]ould allow President Trump to serve three terms."
Why didn't the Founding Fathers put a limit on presidential
terms? According to Bruce G. Peabody and Scott E. Gant in their 1999 Minnesota
Law Review article "The Twice and Future President: Constitutional
Interstices and the Twenty-Second Amendment," during the Constitutional
Convention the question of how long the president should serve was discussed
extensively. In debates on the question during the summer of 1787, Virginia
Gov. Edmund Randolph called for an executive chosen by the national legislature
and ineligible for more than one term of service.
Measures proposed by other Convention delegates left the
question of eligibility open-ended and called for some form of presidential
election, as opposed to selection by the legislature.
Obviously, the founders decided on election of the
president, but put no limitations on terms. For more than 150 years it was not
an issue, except for unsuccessful efforts by Ulysses S. Grant to seek the
nomination of the GOP for a third term.
When Franklin D. Roosevelt died in Warm Springs, Georgia, on
April 12, 1945, he was serving his fourth term as president of the United
States. Prior to Roosevelt, American presidents adhered to a tradition set by
the nation's first president, George Washington, who served two terms and
stepped aside. Every president before Roosevelt followed that tradition.
Roosevelt's decision to seek a third term was met with
resistance. He won reelection as the world was being engulfed in a world war.
Ironically, Roosevelt ran on the promise to keep America out of the war. That
changed on Dec. 7, 1941.
Political leaders began to talk of presidential term limits
when Roosevelt decided to seek a fourth term. Republican candidate Thomas Dewey
said a potential 16-year term for Roosevelt was a threat to democracy.
According to The Constitution Center, in a speech in Buffalo on Oct. 31, 1944,
Dewey said, "four terms or sixteen years is the most dangerous threat to
our freedom ever proposed. That is one reason why I believe that two terms must
be established as the limit by constitutional amendment."
The United States Constitution was written "to endure
for ages to come," Chief Justice John Marshall wrote in the early 1800s.
According to the Associated Press, to ensure the Constitution would last, the
framers made amending the document a difficult task. A proposed amendment must
be passed by two-thirds of both houses of Congress, then ratified by the legislatures
of three-fourths of the states.
In 1947, two years after Roosevelt's death, the House of
Representatives proposed Joint Resolution 27, calling for a set limit of two
terms, each containing four years, for all future presidents.
The proposed amendment was approved and sent out to the states
for ratification on March 21, 1947. After almost four years of deliberation,
the proposed amendment was ratified by three-fourths of the nation's state
legislatures and adopted as the 22nd Amendment in 1951.
The prospect of amending or rescinding the 22nd Amendment
should be of great concern to most Americans. In 1947, the concern was not only
that FDR was elected to four terms but that dictators like Hitler, Mussolini
and Stalin had installed themselves as leaders for life. Fortunately, the
lifespan of Hitler and Mussolini was much shorter than expected.
In America, we don't need to count on longevity, or the lack
there of, to stave off dictators — we have the 22nd Amendment.
Matthew T. Mangino is of counsel with Luxenberg, Garbett,
Kelly & George P.C. His book "The Executioner's Toll, 2010" was
released by McFarland Publishing. You can reach him at www.mattmangino.com and
follow him on Bluesky @matthewmangino.bsky.social.
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