As Inauguration Day approaches and Barack Obama prepares to assume his first term as president, some in Congress are hoping to make it possible for the Democrat to not only seek a second term in office, but a third and fourth as well.
The U.S. House Committee on the Judiciary is considering a bill that would repeal the Constitution's 22nd Amendment prohibiting a president from being elected to more than two terms in office.
Rep. Jose Serrano, D-N.Y., earlier this month introduced the bill, H. J. Res. 5, which, according to the bill's language, proposes "an amendment to the Constitution of the United States to repeal the twenty-second article of amendment, thereby removing the limitation on the number of terms an individual may serve as President."
In the past, some presidents have been critical of the 22nd Amendment, including Eisenhower, Clinton and Reagan.
In 1807 Thomas Jefferson, however, warned that presidents not bound by term limits could use their popularity and power to become kings.
"If some termination to the services of the chief magistrate be not fixed by the Constitution or supplied in practice," Jefferson wrote to the Legislature of Vermont, "his office, nominally for years, will in fact become for life; and history shows how easily that degenerates into an inheritance."
Presidential term limits, however, were not "fixed by the Constitution" until ratification of the 22nd Amendment. Congress passed the Amendment on March 21, 1947, shortly after the death of Franklin D. Roosevelt, the first and only president to be elected to more than two terms – in Roosevelt's case, four. The Amendment was ratified by the required number of states on Feb. 26, 1951.
The 22nd Amendment states, "No person shall be elected to the office of the President more than twice, and no person who has held the office of President, or acted as President, for more than two years of a term to which some other person was elected President shall be elected to the office of the President more than once."
The Amendment limits presidents to a maximum of eight years in office – or, under unusual circumstances, such as succession following the death of a president, a maximum of ten years in office. Should Rep. Serrano succeed in repealing the Amendment, Obama would be cleared to run for an unlimited number of terms, restricted only by the vote of the electorate.
In order to achieve repeal of the 22nd Amendment, Serrano's proposal must be approved by a two-thirds vote of both houses of Congress and ratified by three-quarters of the states' legislatures.
H. J. Res. 5 is not the first attempt by Serrano to repeal the 22nd Amendment. In 2003, Serrano introduced H. J. Res. 11 to the 108th Congress to accomplish the same purpose. A similar resolution, H.J. Res. 25, was also proposed the same year and received co-sponsorship from a bipartisan group of six other representatives. In 1987, during Reagan's term of office, Earl Michener, R-Mich., also proposed a repeal of the 22nd Amendment.
At the current time, H.J. Res. 5 has not tallied any cosponsors and has been referred to the House Committee on the Judiciary.
Prior to Franklin Roosevelt, presidents honored the precedent established by George Washington, who – though widely popular – refused to run for a third term of office.
Thomas Jefferson, who became the second vice president of the U.S. after Washington declined to run for a third term and who then later became the third president, not only affirmed following the Washington's example, but also foresaw the eventual passage of the 22nd Amendment.
"General Washington set the example of voluntary retirement after eight years," Jefferson wrote in an 1805 letter to John Taylor. "I shall follow it, and a few more precedents will oppose the obstacle of habit to anyone after a while who shall endeavor to extend his term. Perhaps it may beget a disposition to establish it by an amendment of the Constitution."
In the same letter to the Legislature of Vermont where he warned of a presidential monarchy, Jefferson further explained why he refused to run for a third term.
"Believing that a representative government, responsible at short periods of election, is that which produces the greatest sum of happiness to mankind," Jefferson wrote, "I feel it a duty to do no act which shall essentially impair that principle; and I should unwillingly be the person who, disregarding the sound precedent set by an illustrious predecessor, should furnish the first example of prolongation beyond the second term of office."
WND attempted to contact Rep. Serrano about his reasons and argument for repeal of the 22nd Amendment, but phone calls to his communications director were not returned.
THERE IS GONNA BE A FRICKIN REVOLUTIONARY WAR WITH THIS DAMN PRESIDENT IN OFFICE!!!
Thursday, January 22, 2009
Obama's Dumb Executive Order on his first day being in The Oval Office! READ!!! READ!!! READ!!!
President Obama decides to close Guantanamo Bay Terrorist Detention Facility
Today, President Obama signed an Executive Order that will close the Guantanamo Bay Detention Facility within one year. Military Families United has been working with your U.S. Senators and Members of Congress to ensure that what follows this closure does not harm our national security or endanger the lives of our families here at home, our troops serving overseas, or the people of the countries where these terrorists may be returned.
The Guantanamo Bay Detention Facility currently holds 250 enemy combatants. These are terrorists who have tried to kill American troops or who pose a significant threat to American citizens. These are men who have made it their life’s mission to destroy America and all of our people. These are terrorists who have vowed to kill the innocent for the advancement of their radical ideologies and principles. These are the people who killed 2,977 innocent people by flying planes into the World Trade Center and the Pentagon on 9/11.
The Executive Order signed today also allows for a task force to make recommendations on what happens to the enemy combatants currently being held at the detention facility. We will be working with our legislative leaders, the task force, and the Administration to ensure that the interests of America’s military families are represented in this vital policy debate.
We want to make it very clear that we will work aggressively in the interests of America’s military families to ensure that these terrorists are brought to justice and that they will never again threaten the safety and security of America.
Military Families United believes the following:
- Guantanamo Bay should not be closed due to a public relations issue or to score political points. It should only be closed if it is no longer the most effective way of detaining enemy combatants.
- For every step of the process, from military trials to conviction to capital punishment or long-term incarceration, the procedures for dealing with all enemy combatants must be decided before any process of closing the detention facility is executed.
- Detainees should not be brought to communities within the United States.
- The assignment of due process rights to foreign enemy combatants, that they have neither earned nor deserve, will be debilitating to our troops’ ability to fight and win the War on Terror.
- Detainees cannot be tried in civilian court or held in a federal prison. This is a military issue and should be handled by military protocols and procedures.
Military Families United, the nation's premier grassroots military family advocacy organization, knows that our brave men and women - our sons, daughters, husbands or wives risk their lives every day to protect this country from terrorism and the radical ideologies that support terrorism. Many courageous Americans have made the ultimate sacrifice so our homeland would be safer, more secure, and free from fear. Our military does not fight to eradicate terrorism abroad only for our government to welcome suspected terrorists as their neighbors in America. We strongly believe that the closure of Guantanamo Bay must be a carefully considered and thought-out process. Our troops have fought these terrorists on the battlefield, captured them without lethal force, and secured them at the detention facility in Guantanamo Bay. We cannot reward these terrorist now by inviting them to live beside us in the land that they have vowed to destroy.
About me!
My name is Matthew Daniel Foster, and i was born at Thunderbird Hospital in Phoenix, Arizona. I have lived in Arizona my whole life. After High School, i plan on going to FlagStaff and living in my house up there and go to Nau for four years and recieve a Bachelor's Degree in Mechanical Engineering. I live with both my parents, Daniel and Rachel, and my little brother who is 16 and his name is Drew, and i am 18 by the way! I also have an older brother who is 20 and he lives in Flagstaff and attends Nau and CCC, and he is persuing in a Bachelor's Degree for Enviromental Engineering. I love to work out and do anything physical, anything that has to do with something fun that is outside, like snowboarding, hiking, biking, etc. This last summer i went to Philmont Camp in Cimarron, New Mexico and hiked 80 miles with a 55lbs backpack over a course of ten days. I have hiked Humphreyes Peak 4 times, which is in the Sanfrisco Peaks Mountain Range, which it is the highest spot in Arizona. I plan to hike the Arizona TRail this summer, which is an 800 miles train that starts in Mexico and ends in Southern Arizona, and my main goal is to hike everest with my two brothers! The thing that I am most proud of that I have accomplished is obtaining my Eagle Scout.
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