[78-L] FDR O/T^

[Michael Biel]

On 3/4/2012 2:34 PM, Cary Ginell wrote:
> The 22nd Amendment to the Constitution, which limited presidential terms to two consecutive ones, wasn't ratified until 1947.
>
> Cary Ginell

No, it was passed by congress in 1947 but not ratified until 1951.  
Prior to that it was just custom to not try for more than two terms 
because George Washington had said that this should be the limit.  But 
it was never written into law until the abovementioned amendment.  
However the limit is not two terms, but rather, ten years.  LBJ could 
have gone for another term in 1968 because his "first" term was only 
about 13 months.    And so could Truman because it did not affect the 
current president.  But Nixon could not have come back again because 
although another term would have been under ten years, the law states 
that only two elected terms were allowed, the two years beyond those two 
terms had to be for a term someone else had been elected to.

Mike Biel  mbiel at mbiel.com
>
> On Mar 4, 2012, at 11:24 AM, Julian Vein wrote:
>
>> How did Roosevelt get elected for a third term (in 1940?). US law
>> prohibits someone being president for three terms. The USA hadn't
>> entered WW2 then, so his third term couldn't have been the result of an
>> emergency.
>>
>>       Julian Vein