The Twenty-Second Amendment

The Text

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.

What It Says

No one may be elected President more than twice. A person who served more than two years of another President’s term may only be elected once.

What It Protects Against

Indefinite tenure in the executive. Washington’s two-term precedent had held for a century and a half without being written down, and this amendment converted a custom into a rule after it was broken.

Protocol Media reading. Not sourced to a ratification-era document.

Problem Addressed

Franklin Roosevelt was elected to four terms between 1932 and 1944, ending the unwritten two-term tradition established by Washington.