3/2 Equal Amendment (Rev. 3.1C)

Constructed Demonstration Specimen

Prepared as part of the Rotation Research project · 2025-12-12

What this document is

This page presents a constructed congressional term limits amendment text designed for one purpose: to demonstrate how the Rotation Research Analytical Framework evaluates a fully specified eligibility architecture.

It is not presented as advocacy, a proposal, or a recommended political outcome. It is presented as a transparent test object, allowing readers to observe how the Framework operates when applied to a coherent design.

The structure of this page is:

Full Framework evaluation results (Structural and Normative)
Complete text of the amendment
Document metadata

Framework Evaluation Results — Structural Analysis

Structural Failure Mode Assessment

New-Clock Collapse — No.
The text expressly counts all prior service, prohibits any reset of eligibility, and limits the transitional allowance to a single, time-bound opportunity, preventing the creation of a new eligibility clock.

Prospective Laundering — No.
The amendment applies identical counting rules to all persons, including incumbents, and creates no structurally exempt class or unequal eligibility regime.

Cooling-Off Laundering — No.
Eligibility is constrained by a lifetime aggregate ceiling, and explicit provisions prevent resignation, hiatus, or sequencing from restoring eligibility.

Unit-of-Measure Collapse — No.
The operative unit is consistently elections, with a defined conversion rule for partial terms and no competing use of years-based or consecutive-term measures.

Appointment ≠ Election Laundering — No.
Appointed service is expressly included in the counting rule, eliminating the possibility of avoidance through appointment or interim service.

Administrative Coherence Failure — No.
The provisions are internally consistent, define operative mechanics with precision, minimize discretion, and are capable of mechanical and uniform application.

Finding: Clean.

Framework Evaluation Results — Normative Analysis (under the Doctrine)

Entrenchment Risk — Low.
A fixed lifetime ceiling on elections, inclusion of all service (elected and appointed), and explicit anti-circumvention provisions structurally prevent durable accumulation of formal officeholding power.

Careerism Incentive Risk — Low.
The capped number of elections available to any individual makes long-term career planning within office irrational beyond a short, finite horizon.

Rotation Cadence Weakness — Low.
Expected turnover is regular and predictable, with no mechanisms permitting indefinite cycling, reset, or extension, thereby meaningfully disrupting elite continuity over time.

Civic Intelligibility Deficit — Moderate.
The core rule (“three House elections, two Senate elections”) is readily grasped, but the transitional allowance and counting rules introduce complexity that may exceed ordinary intuitive understanding without explanation.

Confidence ≠ Rotation Risk — Low.
Reelection success or public approval has no structural capacity to override the eligibility ceiling, preserving rotation as a mechanical rule rather than a discretionary outcome.

Office ≠ Leadership Risk — Moderate.
Formal limits terminate eligibility for office but cannot structurally prevent informal influence, external leadership, or shadow authority outside office, leaving residual continuity risk inherent to all term-limit designs.

Service ≠ Seniority Risk — Low.
The text rejects service-based justification for extended tenure by counting all service toward the limit and barring any exemption grounded in experience, partial terms, or characterization of service.

Finding: Normatively strong.
Characterization: Normatively strong under the Doctrine.

Full Text of the 3/2 Equal Amendment (Rev. 3.1C)

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Section 1. Equal Limit

No person shall be elected to the House of Representatives more than three times, nor to the Senate more than two times. No person may evade these limits by alternating between chambers.

Section 2. Transitional Application

Any person serving in the House of Representatives or the Senate at the time of ratification who would become ineligible for election under Section 1 at the next election for that office may be elected one additional time.

This allowance shall apply only to the first election for which such person is eligible following ratification. If not exercised at that election, the allowance shall expire.

All prior service shall be counted toward the limits established in this Article, and no reset of terms shall occur.

Section 3. Counting of Elections and Service

For purposes of this Article:

(a) All service in the House of Representatives or the Senate, whether commenced by election or appointment, whether occurring before or after ratification, shall be counted toward the limits established in Section 1.

(b) Service during more than one-half of any term shall be counted as one election for that chamber.

(c) Resignation, retirement, defeat, or any period of non-service shall not reset eligibility; all prior service remains counted for any future election.

(d) Service in any House district shall be aggregated as House service, and service representing any State shall be aggregated as Senate service.

Section 4. Anti-Circumvention

No interpretation, procedure, or action shall extend eligibility beyond the limits established in Section 1.

Without limitation, the following shall not be permitted to evade the limits imposed by this Article:

(a) changing chambers;

(b) sequencing or alternating elections between chambers;

(d) characterizing service as elected, appointed, partial, or otherwise to exclude it from counting under this Article.

Section 5. Limitation on Congressional Authority; State Coordination

Congress shall have no power to waive, suspend, extend, or otherwise modify the limits imposed by this Article.

States may voluntarily cooperate to share information, including factual records of prior elections, regarding the ministerial application of this Article in the conduct of elections.

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Document Metadata

Revision: 3.1C
Scope: Congressional offices only
Prepared: 12 December 2025

Last updated: January 2026