The Constitution of 1787 set no term limits on the President of the United States. However, George Washington—the first president, and one who could have made himself president-for-life if he wanted to—voluntarily retired from office after two terms, establishing an informal two-term limit that lasted for nearly 150 years. Then Franklin D. Roosevelt got himself elected president four times in a row, serving from 1933 until he died in office in 1945. Most Americans at the time loved Roosevelt and were happy to have him stay in the White House to help guide the country through the difficult challenges of the Great Depression and World War II. After FDR was gone, however, many people began to think that the two-term limit really had been a good thing; it didn't seem healthy for a democracy to be led by the same individual for decades at a time. So the Twenty-second Amendment turned George Washington's example into official constitutional law; today no president can serve more than two full terms. (A vice president who serves out less than two years of his predecessor's term is allowed another two terms of his own, which means that it is theoretically possible for one individual to serve a maximum of ten years in the White House; in more normal circumstances, eight years is the max.)

The Twenty-second Amendment was ratified about four years after it was passed by Congress, making Section 2 irrelevant.