Which amendment limits a U.S. president to two elected terms in office?

The Twenty-second Amendment limits a U.S. president to two elected terms in office.

Congress proposed the amendment in 1947, and the required number of states ratified it in 1951. It states that no person may be elected president more than twice. It also addresses a person who serves more than two years of another president’s term, limiting that person to one additional election.

The amendment responded largely to Franklin D. Roosevelt’s four elected presidential victories. Before Roosevelt, presidents generally followed the two-term tradition associated with George Washington, even though the original Constitution did not impose a formal term limit.

The amendment did not apply to Harry S. Truman because he was president when Congress proposed it, and its transitional language exempted the sitting president. Truman chose not to seek another term in 1952. The amendment remains part of the Constitution’s rules for presidential succession and elections.