On January 20, 2025, US President Trump spoke to reporters when signing an executive order in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington, DC.
Jim Watson | AFP | Getty Images
A newly launched one constitutional amendment This would make the president Donald Trump elected as third semester exist White House Faced with a very slim chance – at best – of being approved, Harvard Law School the professor said Friday.
professor, Stephen Sackssaid the math and politics of such a proposal would almost certainly fail.
Rep. Andy Ogles, R-Tennessee, introduced a house A resolution calling for an amendment to the United States Constitution, whose 22nd Amendment currently limits the president to two elections.
The adjustment proposed by Ogus is tailor-made for his fellow Republican, Trump, because a president would only be allowed to be elected to a third term if his first two terms were non-consecutive.
Trump is the only president currently elected non-consecutively.
Trump has hinted that he may seek re-election despite the high constitutional limit on being elected to a third term.
Ogles said in a statement about his amendment Thursday that Trump “has proven himself to be the only figure in modern history capable of reversing our country’s decline and restoring America to greatness, and he must be given the necessary time to achieve this goal.”
Sacks, the Antonin Scalia Professor of Law at Harvard Law School, poured cold water on the idea that Ogles’ resolution would survive a congressional vote — let alone among the states that would need to ratify such an amendment.
Stephen Sachs, Antonin Scalia Professor of Law at Harvard Law School.
Image courtesy of Harvard Law School
Sachs told CNBC that passing a constitutional amendment would be “very difficult.”
“Under Article V of the Constitution, the House and Senate must approve proposed amendments by a two-thirds vote,” Sachs noted.
That means 290 of the 435 House members voted in favor and 67 of the 100 senators voted in favor.
Once approved by Congress, “then the proposal would have to be approved by either state legislatures or state conventions in three-quarters of the states — the choice is up to Congress,” Sachs added.
That would amount to winning approval from 38 states.
Although it would be difficult to pass a constitutional amendment, even with broad public support, Ogles’ proposal would face a higher bar.
“Assuming it gets no or very few Democratic votes in Congress or state legislatures, that would be extremely difficult,” Sachs said.
“As of todaythere are only 218 Republican House of Representatives, 53 Republican Senators, and 28 Republican-controlled state legislature,” Sacks said.
Sachs said Ogles’ proposal “attracted far more attention than its chances of passage warranted.”
Asked whether he thought Congress or the states would be interested in passing an amendment that would allow a president who has already served two terms to be elected to a third term, Sacks didn’t mince words: “No.”
Tennessee Republican Rep. Andy Ogles speaks to reporters before voting to pass the American Relief Act on Capitol Hill on December 19, 2024 in Washington.
Anna Roseladen | Reuters
The White House has not yet responded to CNBC’s inquiry about whether Trump supports the Ogus Amendment.
The last time the constitution was amended was in 1992, when the 27th Amendment was ratified.
The amendment prohibits salary increases for members of Congress from taking effect after the election of members of the House of Representatives.
The amendment was introduced in 1789 by then-Rep. James Madison signed the bill during the First Congress, but it lay dormant for two centuries until a college student realized in 1982 that the bill was still eligible for approval.
Before that, the 26th Amendment, which gave 18-year-olds the right to vote, was ratified in 1971.
