The issue of term limits for members of the United States Senate and United States House of Representatives has become an issue of near overriding interest in the 1990s (Kristol, 1993, pp. 95-100). Many people who believe that term limitations for members of Congress are desirable pursue efforts to achieve that objective on the basis of arguments supporting the concept as opposed to addressing the constitutional issues involved in the actual limiting of congressional terms (Will, 1994, p. E2). This research addresses the constitutional issues involved in efforts to limit congressional terms of office through actions taken at the state level of government.
What the Constitution Says and Does Not Say
About Congressional Term Limitations
Article I, Section 2.1. of the Constitution states that the members of the House of Representatives will "be chosen every second year by the people of the several States" (Constitution, I, 2.1). The Seventeenth Amendment to the Constitution states that the members of the United States Senate will be elected by the people for six years (Constitution, Amendments, Article XVII). No where in the Constitution or in the amendments to that document are any limitations placed on the number of terms in office that may be served by a single individual as either a United States Senator or as a member of the United States House of Representatives.
Article V of the Constitution establishes a mechanism for amending the document (Constitution, Article V). There is no question that term limitations may be applied to members of Congress through amending the Constitution. The issue, rather, is whether such action may be accomplished at the state level of government while bypassing the amendment process. One constitutional argument against this approach is that the qualifications for congressional office could under such circumstances vary by state as opposed to being uniform for all members of Congr...