Political Question in the United States
An issue that is not justiciable or not appropriate for judicial determination. A political question is one in which the substance of an issue is primarily political or involves a matter directed toward either the legislative or executive branch by constitutional language. The doctrine the Supreme Court has fashioned for political questions emanates from the concept of judicial self-restraint. When a political question exists, the doctrine requires judicial deference to the prerogatives of the other branches. While the scope of the political question category has varied over time, examples of those issues generally accorded political question status include certain foreign policy decisions, determination of whether the form of government in a state is “republican,” governance matters internal to legislative bodies such as determining committee assignments, and proceedings of national party nominating conventions. Until 1962, the Supreme Court justified its refusal to intervene in legislative apportionment issues on political question grounds.
See Also
Judicial Self-Restraint (Apellate Judicial Process) Justiciable Issue (Apellate Judicial Process).
Analysis and Relevance
The political question doctrine is sometimes invoked by the Supreme Court not because the Court is without power or jurisdiction but because the Court adjudges the question inappropriate for judicial response. In the Court’s view, to intervene or respond would be to encroach upon the functions and prerogatives of one of the other two branches of government. Moreover, such encroachment would constitute a breach of the principle of separation of powers. In Luther v. Borden (7 Howard 1: 1849), the Court was asked to rule on the status of Dorr’s Rebellion in Rhode Island. The Court refused to do so, holding that the guarantee clause of Article IV had committed the issue to Congress rather than the Supreme Court. Chief Justice Taney said it is the duty of the Court “not to pass beyond its appropriate sphere of action, and to take care not to involve itself in discussions which properly belong to other forums.” Justice Brennan was more precise in characterizing a political question in Baker v. Carr (369 U.S. 186: 1962), the first case in which the Court held legislative apportionment to be a justiciable issue. Justice Brennan described a political question as one with a “textually demonstrable constitutional commitment of the issue to a coordinate political department; or a lack of judicial discoverable and manageable standards for resolving it.” He added that such questions typically require a “policy determination of a kind clearly for nonjudicial discretion.” On such matters the court cannot undertake “independent resolution without expressing lack of respect due coordinate branches of the government.”
Notes and References
- Definition of Political Question from the American Law Dictionary, 1991, California
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