After Franklin Delano Roosevelt broke the presidential two-term tradition and was elected to four terms in office, the American public decided they wanted some codification of the original two-term presidency. Roosevelt was a popular president, but Americans (and Congress) were concerned that a president with dictatorial ambitions might try to steal an election and take the presidency for a third term.
So in 1951 Amendment XXII was ratified. It assures that no president can be elected more than twice. Also, no person who has held the office of president (or acted as president) for more than two years of a term can be elected more than once. (This applies to vice-presidents who become president if the president dies in office.)
AMENDMENT XXII
Passed by Congress March 21, 1947. Ratified February 27, 1951.
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 the President more than once. But this Article shall not apply to any person holding the office of President when this Article was proposed by the 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.
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