1947
Federal employee loyalty program
Executive Order 9835 orders loyalty investigations of federal employees and authorizes the Attorney General’s list of “subversive” organizations.
Source: Truman Library
The Twenty-second Amendment. Presidential term limits
No person may be elected President more than twice.
Structure of governmentProposed 1947Ratified February 27, 1951
- What it does
- No person may be elected President more than twice.
- What led to it
- Proposed two years after Franklin D. Roosevelt, the only President elected four times, died in office.
- Time to ratify
- 4 years from proposal to ratification.
- Era
- The early Cold War (1946–1959)
Around 1951. What else was in the record.
Decisions and events within six years of ratification.
1948
Executive Order 9981
President Truman orders “equality of treatment and opportunity” in the armed services without regard to race, beginning the desegregation of the military.
Source: National Archives
1950
Internal Security Act
Passed over President Truman’s veto. Requires Communist organizations to register and authorizes detention of suspected subversives in a national emergency. The detention title is repealed in 1971.
Source: U.S. Senate
1951
Dennis v. United States
No. Conspiring to advocate overthrow of the government could be punished given the gravity of the danger.
Source: Opinion of the Court
1952
Youngstown Sheet & Tube Co. v. Sawyer
No. The President had no power to seize the mills under the Constitution or any statute. Justice Jackson’s concurrence set out the framework for presidential power still used today.
Source: Opinion of the Court
1954
Brown v. Board of Education
Yes. “In the field of public education the doctrine of ‘separate but equal’ has no place.”
Source: Opinion of the Court
1954
Senate censures Joseph McCarthy
After the televised Army–McCarthy hearings, the Senate votes 67–22 to condemn Senator McCarthy for conduct “contrary to senatorial traditions.”
Source: U.S. Senate
1957
Federal troops enforce desegregation in Little Rock
President Eisenhower federalizes the Arkansas National Guard and sends the 101st Airborne to escort nine Black students into Central High School after the governor used the Guard to block them.
Source: National Archives