What Are Term Limits?
- Term limits are laws that restrict the number of years that someone can serve in an elected office. In the United States, the President is the only elected federal official who has a limit placed on his term of service. Members of Congress do not operate under term limits and can run for reelection as many times as they like. Term limits are more prevalent at the state level. According to the National Governors' Association, governors in 38 states, commonwealths and territories cannot seek reelection after serving two consecutive terms. The National Conference of State Legislatures reports that members of 15 state legislatures operate under term limits.
- By restricting officeholders from remaining in their elected positions for indefinite periods of time, term limits generate greater turnover among elected leaders. Incumbent officeholders tend to be overwhelmingly successful when they run for reelection. For example, according to the Center for Responsive Politics, 94% or more of incumbent members of the U.S. House of Representatives were reelected in the seven elections between 1996 and 2008. By their very nature, term limits tend to substantially reduce the number of incumbents who get reelected.
- The President of the United States became subject to term limits in 1951 with the ratification of the 22nd Amendment to the Constitution. It was passed after the death of Franklin Roosevelt, who was elected President four times. The 22nd Amendment states that no President can be elected to more than two full terms. Efforts to impose term limits on Congress have been attempted at various times, most notably in the 1990s when more than 20 states enacted legislation to limit the terms of their members of Congress. However, in the 1995 case of U.S. Term Limits v. Thorton, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that states could not individually limit the terms of federal officeholders.
- Typical arguments supporting term limits include contentions that elected office in the United States was never intended to be a career position, that longtime officeholders may become more interested in serving their own reelection interests than serving the interests of the people they represent and that challengers with new ideas are at an unfair advantage when running against incumbents with higher name recognition.
- Common arguments against term limits include claims that voters are denied their freedom of choice if incumbents aren't allowed to seek reelection, that more influence will be in the hands of unelected professional staff and lobbyists if experienced officeholders are forced out by term limits and that the potential to limit a lawmaker's term is available to voters in every election.
