Also known as: political questions · political question doctrine
Written by attorneys · grounded in primary & secondary sources — see below
A question that a court declines to adjudicate because the Constitution textually commits it to a coordinate political branch or because no judicially discoverable and manageable standards exist for its resolution.
Select any source to read its text and confirm it supports the definition.
Piper Patel and other voters in an urban county sued the state elections board, claiming their districts had not been redrawn after decades of population growth and that their votes were thereby diluted. The board moved to dismiss on political-question grounds. The district court denied the motion and proceeded to the merits after finding none of the six factors that render a case nonjusticiable were present.
Pamela Phillips, a removed federal judge, challenged the Senate's decision to delegate evidence-taking to a small committee rather than conduct a full trial before the entire body. She argued the procedure violated constitutional trial requirements. The court dismissed the suit, holding that the Senate's sole power to try impeachments rendered the procedural choices nonjusticiable.
Priya Prasad and fellow citizens sued the governor, alleging that a new initiative process allowing voters to bypass the legislature entirely destroyed the state's republican form of government. The governor moved to dismiss. The court granted the motion, concluding that Guarantee Clause claims are committed to the political branches and are nonjusticiable.
Priscilla Parks and a coalition of voters sued the redistricting commission, alleging that the new congressional map packed their party's supporters into a few districts solely to entrench the opposing party. The commission moved to dismiss. The court granted dismissal, holding that claims resting exclusively on partisan effects present nonjusticiable political questions.
Pierce Patterson, an American importer, sued a Cuban bank to recover property seized under a foreign expropriation decree. The bank moved to dismiss, arguing that the validity of the foreign government's act was a political question. The court dismissed the claim, holding that recognition and the legal effect of foreign sovereign acts are committed to the political branches.
Pavel Petrov, an alien facing deportation, challenged a one-house legislative veto that overrode an executive suspension of his removal. The government moved to dismiss on political-question grounds. The court rejected the motion, holding that the claim presented a justiciable question of statutory and constitutional authority rather than a political question committed exclusively to another branch.
The Supreme Court has identified six factors, any one of which may render a case nonjusticiable: a textually demonstrable constitutional commitment to another branch, lack of judicially manageable standards, the need for an initial policy determination of a nonjudicial kind, the impossibility of independent resolution without disrespect to coordinate branches, an unusual need for adherence to a prior political decision, or the risk of embarrassment from multifarious pronouncements by different branches.
No. Federal courts treat claims that a districting map was drawn to favor one political party over another as nonjusticiable political questions because no judicially manageable standards exist for deciding how much partisan advantage is too much.
…of a nonjusticiable political question satisfies us that our assertion of jurisdiction over these cases does no violence to the political question doctrine. As identified in Baker v. Carr , 369 U. S. 186, 217 (1962), a political question may arise when any one of the following circumstances is present: "a textually demonstrable…
…this requires no less than to analyze representative cases and to infer from them the analytical threads that make up the political question doctrine. We shall then show that none of those threads catches this case. Foreign relations: There are sweeping statements to the effect that all
…claim, to have the case decided on the merits. Standing has become a barrier to access to the federal courts, just as "the political question" was in earlier decades. The mounting caseload of federal courts is well known. But cases such as this one reflect festering sores in our society; and the American dream teaches that if one…
…provide the basis for cases that, absent a standing question, could not readily be excluded from the federal courts as involving political questions
…Navegacion Maritima, S. A. , v. The Navemar , 303 U. S. 68, 74. See generally Dickinson, The Law of Nations As National Law: "Political Questions
No. Challenges to legislative apportionment that rest on equal-protection principles and present manageable population-based standards are justiciable. Only those lacking such standards or textually committed to another branch are barred.
No. The Constitution's textual commitment of the sole power to try all impeachments to the Senate renders challenges to the Senate's choice of procedures, including delegation of evidence-taking, nonjusticiable political questions.
No. Claims that a state has failed to maintain a republican form of government under the Guarantee Clause are classic nonjusticiable political questions committed to the political branches rather than the judiciary.