Under the Twenty-Second Amendment, presidents are limited to just two four-year terms in office. For more than a century and a half before the rule was added to the US Constitution, most presidents freely stuck to two terms, following the precedent set by George Washington when he voluntarily stepped down.
Only one president served more than two terms: Franklin D. Roosevelt. Instead of sticking with tradition, FDR, a Democrat, served four terms as president. The wartime president was elected in 1932, 1936, 1940, and 1944. In April 1945, Roosevelt died in office, so it’s unclear whether he intended to run for a fifth term. Roosevelt’s break with the two-term tradition ultimately led to the Twenty-Second Amendment, which was ratified on February 27, 1951.
While the president is restricted to just two terms, neither senators nor members of the House of Representatives are term-limited. The Constitution never imposed term limits on Congress, but the historic document’s predecessor did. Under the Articles of Confederation, no congressional delegates could serve “more than three years, in any term of six years.” The Founders debated similar limits for the new Congress but ultimately left them out of the Constitution.
Efforts to enact congressional term limits began as early as 1789, though the issue received little attention again until the 1940s. “Congressional term limits were first debated in a Senate subcommittee in September 1945, with S.J. Res. 21, which would have limited the president, vice president, and members of Congress to six years of service,” Britannica notes. Since the 1940s, lawmakers have introduced numerous proposals to limit congressional terms, but none have become law.
Like members of Congress, Supreme Court justices are also free from term restrictions; however, unlike their legislative colleagues, justices serve lifetime appointments.
