The constitution says that a president cannot serve for more than two terms or eight years. how is it that president franklin roosevelt served for a little over 12 years? since the country was in a crisis, due to the depression, an exception was made for roosevelt. roosevelt violated the constitution, but his party was powerful enough to get away with it. at the time that roosevelt was president, there was no limit on presidential terms of office. the congress passed an amendment to override the rule that a president could serve only two terms.