B. Term Limits
The American people have long favored term limits for Congress. Gallup conducted polls in 1994, 1996, and 2013. All of those polls showed widespread support for congressional term limits. In those polls, between two-thirds and three-quarters of respondents stated they’d vote “for” term limits.[1] Specifically, the question asked was whether they’d vote for a constitutional amendment to limit the number of terms that can be served. This isn’t an artifact of the past. In September of 2023, Pew Research Center reported 87 percent of respondents supported “Limiting the number of terms that members of Congress can serve.”[2] A study by the Program for Public Consultation found similar results.[3]
Public opinion aside, the courts have ruled that neither Congress nor the states can impose any limitations beyond those explicit in the Constitution of 1789. That document explicitly states, “Each House shall be the Judge of the Elections, Returns and Qualifications of its Members”.[4] Still, in 1969, the Supreme Court ruled that the power to judge qualifications didn’t extend beyond the qualifications specified in the Constitution of 1789 itself.[5] That case was not specifically about term limits, but the precedent established by it prevents Congress from enacting term limits in federal statute. Whether they would be likely to try is not a question I’m going to dignify here. Undeterred, 23 state legislatures imposed term limits for members from their states. The thinking was that this was permissible at the state level. But in U.S. Term Limits, Inc. v. Thornton (1995), the Supreme Court held that states can’t impose term limits beyond those provided by the Constitution of 1789.[6] This decision effectively sealed term limits away. The only route available under our current system is the amendment process.
And still, the American people want term limits.
This subsection of the Charter imposes those long-awaited term limits. It establishes a set number of times members can serve in a given house, and it sets an upward limit for both houses combined.
[1] Lydia Saad, Americans Call for Term Limits, End to Electoral College, Gallup News (Jan. 18, 2013), https://news.gallup.com/poll/159881/americans-call-term-limits-end-electoral-college.aspx.
[2] How AmericansView Proposals to Change the Political System, Pew Research Center (Sept. 19, 2023), https://www.pewresearch.org/politics/2023/09/19/how-americans-view-proposals-to-change-the-political-system/.
[3] Congressional Term Limits, Program for Public Consultation, (Mar. 21, 2023), https://publicconsultation.org/congressional-term-limits/.
[4] U.S. Const. art. I, §5, cl. 1. For the layperson, this arcane citation points to the first clause of Article I, Section 5, in the U.S. Constitution.
[5] Powell v. McCormack, 395 U.S. 486 (1969).
[6] U.S. Term Limits, Inc. v. Thornton, 514 U.S. 779 (1995).
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