January 5, 2026
Contact: Scott Tillman, Phone: (321) 345-7455
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Dershowitz claims 22nd Amendment is “Ambiguous”
A month or so after President Trump conceded the Constitution does not permit him to run for a third term, the idea has resurfaced.
On Dec. 17, the Wall Street Journal reported that lawyer Alan Dershowitz gave the president a draft copy of his new book claiming that the Constitution is “ambiguous” on the question.
Ambiguous?
Here’s what the 22nd Amendment says: “No person shall be elected to the office of the president more than twice…”
Nonetheless, Dershowitz handed Trump the draft of a book tentatively titled “Could President Trump Constitutionally Serve a Third Term?,” which is set to be published next year. The famous defense lawyer, who assisted President Trump during the impeachment process in Trump’s first term, told the WSJ the book describes various ways a person could serve a third term.
While Trump had some fun trolling the media on this issue this year, the 22nd Amendment was never in any danger and still isn’t. According to White House chief of staff Susie Wiles in a Vanity Fair article published Dec. 16, the president “knows he can’t run again.”
His book isn’t out yet but apparently Dershowitz suggests that, among other avenues back into the White House, Trump could be placed back in office by the Congress.
This is the way the WSJ explains it: “If Trump were to be declared the winner of another election, Dershowitz proposes that the members of the Electoral College could abstain their vote when they meet to cast their ballots. Once they abstain, Dershowitz argues, the election would be decided by Congress. ‘They then select, and not elect, the president,’ Dershowitz said in describing his idea.”
Get it? The 22nd Amendment says“No person shall be elected to the office of the president more than twice.” But under this scenario, the person in question is not being elected, but instead selected.
Another idea is that Trump could run for Speaker of the House. The Speaker does not have to be a member of Congress. Then, allies like JD Vance and Donald Trump Jr. might run for president with a plan not to serve. They resign and the Speaker of the House ascends to the presidency.
That may prompt a laugh, but we have seen politicians in state houses and even city councils contrive outrageous justifications like these to try to cling to power. They usually get shot down in court, but not always.
Dershowitz should be ashamed of himself. There is no question the intent of the 22nd amendment is that no president be permitted to serve three terms. Dershowitz is simply using legal technicalities to try to defy this decidedly unambiguous amendment.
How is what Dershowitz doing any different than what former Honduran president Juan Orlando Hernandez – also a lawyer – did to his country? In episode 276 of the No Uncertain Terms podcast, we told the story of Hernandez effort in 2015 to stack his supreme court with cronies so they would find president term limits – written explicitly and unambiguously in the Honduran constitution itself – somehow unconstitutional.
Fortunately, the U.S. is not Honduras and our institutions will endure.
(This post first ran as a segment on episode 277 of the No Uncertain Terms podcast.)
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U.S. Term Limits is the largest nonpartisan, nonprofit organization advocating solely on term limits. Our mission is to improve the quality of government with a citizen legislature that closely reflects its constituency and is responsive to the needs of the people it serves. USTL does not require a self-limit on individuals. Our aim is to limit the terms of all members of Congress as an institution. Find out more at termlimits.org.
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