Supreme Court Justice Amy Coney Barrett this week offered a mild rebuke to the idea that President Trump could legally seek a third term, a prospect widely considered unconstitutional under the 22nd Amendment.
During an interview aired Monday on Fox News, anchor Bret Baier asked Barrett, whom Trump nominated during his first term, whether the 22nd Amendment’s two-term limit was a “cut and dry” rule.
“Well, you know, that's what the amendment says,” Barrett responded, before talking about the amendment’s inception following President Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s unprecedented four terms during the mid-1900s.
The comments come as the Supreme Court, which has a six-to-three conservative majority thanks to three Trump-appointed justices, has faced larger questions about its independence in the face of Donald Trump’s unprecedented attempts to consolidate power.
The court has prompted alarm from Democratic critics for rulings including a 2024 decision holding that Trump and future presidents have wide immunity from criminal prosecution for official acts as president, as well as more recent rulings on the second Trump administration’s most controversial actions, including a provisional decision allowing immigration agents to continue to make indiscriminate stops based on someone’s appearance, job, or language, which critics say amounts to racial profiling.
Elsewhere during the Fox interview, Barrett pushed back on the notion that the high court is acting as a rubber stamp on the Trump agenda.
“We’re not deciding cases just for today. We’re not deciding cases based on the president, as in the current occupant of the office,” she said. “We’re deciding cases about the president. So we’re taking each case and we’re looking at the question of presidential power as it comes.”
Trump, for his part, has alternated between suggesting a third-term run is around the corner and dismissing the prospect.
During a March interview with Meet the Press, the president stated that he was “not joking” about a third term and that there are “methods” that could allow him to circumvent the 22nd Amendment, including running as vice president and then having his running mate cede the presidency.
“A lot of people want me to do it,” the president said, referring to his allies. “But, I mean, I basically tell them we have a long way to go, you know, it’s very early in the administration.”
GOP congressman Andy Ogles has proposed a constitutional amendment to allow Trump to run for a third term, and Trump himself has sold ‘Trump 2028’ hats.
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