Twenty-Second Amendment: Let it Be

Gillian E. Metzger, Columbia Law School

Abstract

It is hard to have strong feelings about the Twenty-Second Amendment. Much of the debate over presidential term limits is speculative, with little real evidence of their effect and arguments pro-and-con in equipoise. The convention of two-term presidencies that long-predated the Amendment complicates any effort to assess the measure. On balance, enacting the Twenty-Second Amendment may well have been a mistake, but repealing it now would be worse.