Term limits in the United States
Updated: 5/20/2026, 7:46:29 PM Wikipedia source
In the context of the politics of the United States, term limits restrict the number of terms of office an officeholder may serve. At the federal level, the president of the United States can be elected to a maximum of two four-year terms, with this being limited by the Twenty-second Amendment to the United States Constitution that came into force on February 27, 1951. Some state government offices are also term-limited, including executive, legislative, and judicial offices. Analogous measures exist at the city and county level across the U ., though many details involving local governments in that country vary depending on the specific location. Term limits are also referred to as rotation in office. That specific terminology is often associated with the Founding Father and later president Thomas Jefferson given his use of it in his political arguments.
Tables
| Office | Restrictions |
| President | Limited to being elected to a total of two four-year terms. If a vice president becomes president by succession and completes more than two years of said former president's unfinished term, they may be elected in their own right only once. A vice president who becomes president by succession and serves less than two years of their predecessor's ter |
| Vice president | Unlimited four-year terms |
| House of Representatives | Unlimited two-year terms |
| Senate | Unlimited six-year terms |
| Supreme Court and lower courts | No term limits, appointed to serve "during good Behaviour" (but can be impeached and removed from office for "high Crimes and Misdemeanors"). In practice a judge or justice serves until death or resignation. |
References
- Article IX, paragraph 5, of the Articles of Confederation provided that, "no person be allowed to serve in the office of
- See Family Guardian, "Thomas Jefferson on Politics & Government."https://famguardian.org/Subjects/Politics/ThomasJefferson/jeff1230.htm
- For a detailed study of the 19th-century concepts of rotation, consult Struble (1979–1980, p. 650). See also Struble (20
- U . Term Limits wanted House members to be limited to three two-year terms.
- The four constitutional amendments on term limits which the House rejected March 29, 1995, were sponsored by: Democrat J
- The History of Ancient Rome
- avalonhttp://avalon.law.yale.edu/17th_century/order.asp
- avalonhttp://avalon.law.yale.edu/18th_century/pa08.asp
- avalonhttp://avalon.law.yale.edu/18th_century/pa08.asp
- The Avalon Projecthttp://avalon.law.yale.edu/18th_century/artconf.asp
- Boyd 1950, vol. 1, p. 411https://jeffersonpapers.princeton.edu/volumes/volume-1
- The Politics and Law of Term Limitshttps://books.google.com/books?id=PJtRgu3wWWkC&pg=PA62
- Letters from the Federal Farmer to the Republican
- Boyd 1950, vol. 12 p. 440; vol. 13 p. 490. See also Boyd 1950, vol. 15 p. 25 for Jefferson's definition of rotation in o
- The Debates in the Several State Conventions on Adoption of the Federal Constitution
- The Complete Anti-Federalist
- Korzi 2013, pp. 43–44.
- Stein 1943, pp. 71–116.
- Stein 1943, pp. 144–222.
- Pietrusza 2007.