Twenty-second Amendment to the United States Constitution facts for kids

The Twenty-second Amendment is an important part of the U.S. Constitution. It sets a limit on how many times a person can be elected President. A person can only be elected president twice. If someone becomes president because the old president left office, they might serve up to ten years in total. This amendment was passed by Congress in 1947 and became law in 1951.

Why We Have the 22nd Amendment

The President of the United States serves a "term" of four years. For a long time, the Constitution did not say how many terms a president could serve. The first president, George Washington, chose to serve only two terms. This set an unwritten rule that most presidents followed. It meant that two terms were usually enough for any president.

This unwritten rule was followed until 1940. That year, President Franklin D. Roosevelt won a third term. He also won a fourth term in 1944. Roosevelt was president during the Great Depression and most of World War II. He was very popular during these tough times.

Roosevelt died in April 1945, just a few months into his fourth term. After he died, members of the Republican Party in Congress started working on a new amendment. They wanted to make sure no future president could serve more than two terms. Roosevelt was the only president ever to serve more than two terms.

How the Amendment Works

Congress passed the amendment in 1947. It was approved by enough states by February 27, 1951. The Twenty-second Amendment says a person can only be elected president two times. This usually means a total of eight years.

However, there's a special rule. A person can serve up to ten years as president. This happens if someone, like the Vice President, takes over for a president who can no longer serve.

• If the new president serves two years or less of the old president's term, they can still be elected for two more full four-year terms.
• If they serve more than two years of the old president's term, they can only be elected for one more full four-year term.

The president at the time the amendment was approved, Harry S. Truman, was not affected by this new rule. He had served almost all of Roosevelt's last term and was then elected president once himself.

Presidents Affected by the Amendment

Many presidents have been affected by the Twenty-second Amendment. Here are some examples:

• Harry S. Truman: He became president after Franklin D. Roosevelt died. He served most of Roosevelt's last term. The amendment was written so it did not apply to him. He was elected president once in 1948. He decided not to run again in 1952.

• Dwight D. Eisenhower: He was elected president in 1952 and again in 1956. He was the first president who could not run for a third term because of the amendment.

• Lyndon B. Johnson: He became president in 1963 after John F. Kennedy was killed. He served the last 14 months of Kennedy's term. Because this was less than two years, he could have been elected for two more full terms. He won the election in 1964. However, he chose not to run for a second full term in 1968.

• Richard M. Nixon: He was elected president in 1968 and again in 1972. He had to leave office early during his second term because of the Watergate scandal.

• Gerald Ford: He became president in 1974 after Nixon left office. Ford served the last 29 months of Nixon's term. This meant he could only be elected president once. He lost the election in 1976 and did not try to become president again.

• Ronald Reagan: He was elected president in 1980 and again in 1984. He was the third president who could not run again because of the amendment.

• Recent Presidents: As of 2021, Bill Clinton, George W. Bush, and Barack Obama have all been elected twice. They cannot be elected president again. Jimmy Carter, Donald Trump, and Joe Biden have been elected only once, so they could be elected president again.

Text of the 22nd Amendment

This section is the text of the amendment in its original English. It is not in Simple English.

Section 1. 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 President more than once. But this Article shall not apply to any person holding the office of President when this Article was proposed by Congress, and shall not prevent any person who may be holding the office of President, or acting as President, during the term within which this Article becomes operative from holding the office of President or acting as President during the remainder of such term.

Section 2. This Article shall be inoperative unless it shall have been ratified as an amendment to the Constitution by the legislatures of three-fourths of the several States within seven years from the date of its submission to the States by the Congress.

Images for kids

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  A map showing how the states voted on the Twenty-second Amendment.

See also

In Spanish: Vigesimosegunda Enmienda a la Constitución de los Estados Unidos para niños