Michigan Mayor's Term-Limit Challenge Illustrates Need To Draft Charter Provisions Carefully

A four-term Michigan mayor lost his lengthy battle to seek a fifth term earlier this month when the Sixth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals, which oversees federal litigation in several states including Ohio, upheld his city's new charter provision setting mayoral term limits.

In Fouts v. Warren City Council, the court dismissed Mayor James Fouts' claim that a newly enacted charter provision limiting mayoral terms to three full terms or 12 years of service violated his constitutional rights. The provision read: "A person shall not be eligible to hold the position of mayor, city council, city clerk or city treasurer for more than the greater of three (3) complete terms or twelve (12) years in that office."