Term limits in the United States
In 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 serve a maximum of two four-year terms, limited by the 22nd Amendment to the United States Constitution. Some State government offices are also term-limited, including executive, legislative, and judicial offices.
A political cartoon showing Washington rejecting Theodore Roosevelt's highly controversial run for a third term in 1912
Twenty-second Amendment to the United States Constitution
The Twenty-second Amendment to the United States Constitution limits the number of times a person can be elected to the office of President of the United States to two terms, and sets additional eligibility conditions for presidents who succeed to the unexpired terms of their predecessors. Congress approved the Twenty-second Amendment on March 21, 1947, and submitted it to the state legislatures for ratification. That process was completed on February 27, 1951, when the requisite 36 of the 48 states had ratified the amendment, and its provisions came into force on that date.
Franklin D. Roosevelt, elected to four terms, was president from 1933 until his death in 1945.
The Twenty-Second Amendment in the National Archives