Dueling Sovereignties: U.S. Term Limits, Inc. v. Thornton
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DUELING SOVEREIGNTIES:
U.S. TERM LIMITS, INC. v. THORNTON
Kathleen M. Sullivan*
Between 1990 and 1994, twenty-three states barred candidates who
had already served more than a maximum number of terms in Con-
gress from running for reelection.' In U.S. Term Limits, Inc. v. Thorn-
ton,2 the Supreme Court, by a vote of 5-4, held all such term-limits
laws unconstitutional.
The case arose from an amendment to the Arkansas constitution,
passed by popular initiative in 1992, that denied access to the ballot in
congressional elections to any person who had served three or more
terms in the United States House of Representatives or two or more
terms in the Senate.3 A class of Arkansas residents challenged the
amendment in state court. A state trial court, affirmed by the state
supreme court, declared the term-limits provision unconstitutional.4
The Supreme Court affirmed in a decision by Justice Stevens, in
which Justices Kennedy, Souter, Ginsburg, and Breyer joined. Justice
Kennedy also wrote a separate concurrence. The majority held that
neither Congress nor the states may add to the requirements for con-
gressional office set forth in the Qualifications Clauses of the Constitu-
tion: attainment of a minimum age, United States citizenship, and
residence within the represented state at the time of election.s Justice
* Professor of Law, Stanford University. The author gratefully acknowledges the support of
the Stanford Law School summer research program and the Robert E. Paradise Fellowship Fund.
I See David G. Savage, High Court Bars States from Limiting Congressional Terms, L.A.
TImEs, May 23, '995, at Ai. Twenty-one states imposed term limits by popular initiative; two by
action of the legislature. See Grover G. Norquist, A Limited Future, Am. SPECTATOR, Aug. 1995,
at 58, 58.
2 115 S. Ct. 1842 (1995).
3 See ARK. CONST. amend. 73, § 3 (entitled Arkansas Term Limitation Amendment). Sec-
tion 3 provided that [any person having been elected to three or more terms as a member of the
United States House of Representatives from Arkansas and [a]ny person having been elected to
two or more terms as a member of the United States Senate from Arkansas shall not be certified
as a candidate and shall not be eligible to have his/her name placed on the ballot for election.
Id. Some of the other states seeking to limit congressional terms employed such ballot-access
measures; others adopted 'pure' term limits of one sort or another. Term Limits, 115 S. Ct. at
1909 n.39 (Thomas, J., dissenting).
.4 See U.S. Term Limits, Inc. v. Hill, 872 S.W.2d 349, 355 (Ark. 1994).
5 The Qualifications Clauses of Article I provide that No Person shall be a Representative
who shall not have attained to the Age of twenty five Years, and been seven Years a Citizen of
the United States, and who shall not, when elected, be an Inhabitant of that State in which he
shall be chosen, U.S. CoNsT. art. I, § 2, cl. 2; and that No Person shall be a Senator who shall
not have attained to the Age of thirty Years, and been nine Years a Citizen of the United States,](ViewImageLocal?handle=hein.journals/hlr109&div=15&collection=&method=preview&ext=.png&size=3)
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Dueling Sovereignties: U.S. Term Limits, Inc. v. Thornton
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