Term limits in the United States
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There are a number of term limits to offices in the United States.
The Twenty-second Amendment to the United States Constitution says that no person can be elected President of the United States to more than two four year terms. Term limits are a particularly important issue in the United States.
In the United States, the concept of term limits is not a new one: the Delaware Constitution of 1776 limited the governor to a single three-year term; a similar provision remains in force. Currently 36 states have adopted term limits of various types for their governors. One variation allowed a governor to be re-elected, but only to non-consecutive terms. (To circumvent this provision, George Wallace, the governor of Alabama, announced in 1966 that voters should elect his wife, Lurleen Wallace, their next governor. It was clear during the campaign that Mrs. Wallace would only be a titular governor, and thus she was elected the first female governor of Alabama.)
President George Washington originally started the tradition of informal Presidential term limits by refusing to run for a third term. The short-lived Confederate States of America adopted a six-year term for its President and Vice-President and barred holders of these offices from seeking re-election. This innovation was endorsed by many American politicians after the war, most notably by Rutherford B. Hayes in his inaugural address. Hayes's proposal did not come to fruition, but the government of Mexico adopted the Confederate term and limit for its federal President. Franklin Roosevelt was the first and only President to successfully break Washington's tradition, and he died in office while serving his fourth term.
Congressional term limits were featured prominently in the Republican Party's Contract with America in the 1994 election campaign, and may well have contributed to the so-called "Republican Revolution", as the Republicans wrested control of the House of Representatives from the Democratic Party for the first time since the 1952 elections. The Republican leadership brought to the floor of the House a constitutional amendment that would limit House members to six two-year terms and members of the Senate to two six-year terms. However, this amendment did not gain the approval of U.S. Term Limits, the largest private organization pushing for Congressional term limits. (U.S. Term Limits wanted House members to be limited to three two-year terms.) With the Republicans holding 230 seats in the House, the amendment did receive a simple majority in the House. However, a two-thirds majority (290 votes) is required to pass a constitutional amendment, and thus the bill failed. The momentum behind the concept has subsequently been lost.
In May 1995, the United States Supreme Court ruled 5-4 in U.S. Term Limits, Inc. v. Thornton, that states cannot impose term limits upon their federal Representatives or Senators.
Several states, including California and Florida, have imposed term limits upon both their constitutional officers and the people's representatives in their legislature.
In 2002 the Idaho legislature became the first state to repeal its term limits, enacted by a public vote in 1994, ostensibly because it applied to local officials along with the legislature. Maine was the first state to enact legislative term limits, in 1993.
[edit] References
Neil Pinney, George Serra and Dalene Sprick, 'The Costs of Reform: Consequences of Limiting Legislative Terms of Service', Party Politics<u> 10 (1), 69–84. [1]
