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 used to be a longstanding American custom that presidents now not serve greater than two phrases.
This custom used to be established via the selections of early presidents reminiscent of George Washington, Thomas Jefferson and James Madison to not search a 3rd time period. This custom used to be later followed via different presidents.
2nd, after Roosevelt died in place of business in 1945 all through his fourth time period, Congress and the folk of the USA determined to show the long-standing custom that presidents must now not serve greater than two phrases into part of constitutional regulation.
This used to be performed during the passage and ratification of the twenty second Modification, which changed into a part of the U.S. Charter in 1951.
Simplest after the demise of President Franklin Roosevelt, who died in 1945 in his fourth time period and whose casket is noticed right here, did the U.S. codify the two-term restrict on presidents.
AP picture
Intent is obvious
The important thing provision of the twenty second Modification reads as follows: “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.”
The intent is obvious. No person is meant to serve greater than two complete phrases as president.
The one method somebody can serve greater than two phrases is that if they served not up to two years in a prior time period during which they weren’t elected president.
Right here’s an instance: If a vice chairman turns into president all through the general 12 months of a time period for the reason that president died, that vice chairman may just nonetheless run for 2 phrases. However that exception remains to be intended to bar someone from serving greater than a complete of 10 years as president.
It’s price figuring out why the two-term custom used to be regarded as so necessary that it used to be changed into constitutional regulation the primary time it used to be violated.
Beginning the custom
Commentators frequently cite George Washington’s choice to not search a 3rd time period as president as setting up the two-term custom. Political scientist and time period restrict student Michael Korzi offers much more credit score to the country’s 3rd president, Thomas Jefferson.
Jefferson used to be outspoken in prefer of the two-term custom. As Korzi notes, this used to be, partly, as a result of “Jefferson saw little distinction between a long-serving executive in an elective position and a hereditary monarch.” In different phrases, a president with out time period limits is just too similar to a king.
John Trumbull’s portrait of U.S. President Thomas Jefferson, who believed {that a} president who used to be prepared to damage the two-term custom used to be too formidable.
John Trumbull/GraphicaArtis, Getty Photographs
Jefferson noticed a president who used to be prepared to damage the two-term custom as energy hungry, and he was hoping that the American other folks would now not elect the sort of president. This led him to write down in his autobiography in 1821 that “should a President consent to be a candidate for a 3d. election, I trust he would be rejected on this demonstration of ambitious views.”
Jefferson additionally nervous that with out time period limits, presidents would keep in place of business too lengthy into their previous age and when they had misplaced their skill to control successfully. This led him to write down that with out time period limits, there used to be a threat that “the indulgence and attachments of the people will keep a man in the chair after he becomes a dotard.”
Due to this fact, presidents tended to abide via the two-term custom. And within the few instances the place presidents determined to hunt a 3rd time period, their very own events would now not give them the nomination.
That remained true till Roosevelt ran for, and received, each a 3rd and a fourth time period as president all through Global Struggle II.
The twenty second Modification
Roosevelt’s violation of the two-term custom triggered Congress and the states to show the custom into a proper topic of constitutional regulation.
A significant fear motivating the modification used to be the similar one who motivated Jefferson: to stop a president from turning into a king. A couple of participants of Congress known the similar fear all through congressional periods within the Nineteen Forties.
Sen. Chapman Revercomb from West Virginia said that energy given to a president with out time period limits “would be a definite step in the direction of autocracy, regardless of the name given the office, whether it be president, king, dictator, emperor, or whatever title the office may carry.”
In a similar fashion, Rep. Edward McCowen from Ohio stated that the twenty second Modification could be “a great step toward preventing a dictatorship or some totalitarian form of government from arising.”
And Rep. John Jennings Jr. from Tennessee said that simplest via adoption of the twenty second Modification “can the people be assured that we shall never have a dictator in this land.”
Congress handed the twenty second Modification on March 21, 1947. It took not up to 4 years for the important three-fourths of the states to ratify the modification, which changed into regulation on Feb. 27, 1951.
President Donald Trump has again and again mentioned getting a 3rd time period as president.
Brendan Smialowski/AFP by the use of Getty Photographs
Tyrants and time period restrict violations
Within the Eighties, political scientist Juan Linz known that presidential programs are much less solid than different kinds of democracy, reminiscent of parliamentary programs. The adaptation appears to be that presidential programs pay attention extra energy within the palms of a unmarried individual, the president. This makes it more straightforward to take away the exams and balances that democracies rely on.
As students have famous, violation of presidential time period limits and different strategies of accelerating govt energy are a not unusual type of democratic backsliding – state-led debilitation or removal of the political establishments that maintain a democracy.
Regulation professor Mila Versteeg and her colleagues have proven that lately presidents world wide have used quite a lot of techniques to take a look at to violate presidential time period limits. Those techniques come with seeking to amend their nation’s charter, seeking to get the courts to reinterpret the charter, discovering a substitute chief who the previous president can keep an eye on as soon as out of place of business and making an attempt to lengthen elections.
They notice that as a rule when a president’s try to violate time period limits fails it’s “because the attempt encountered widespread popular resistance.” They conclude that this discovering signifies that “broad resistance movements” is also the most productive manner to stop violation of presidential time period limits.
