political question

American  

noun

Law.

1. a question regarded by the courts as being a matter to be determined by another department of government rather than of law and therefore one with which they will not deal, as the recognition of a foreign state.

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Example Sentences

See Examples For:

political question

He suggests they potentially downsize tourism or urbanisation to protect coral -- a "difficult political question" for those who want to keep Okinawa's economy thriving.

From Barron's ● Jul. 29, 2026

“This is a political question: Would it look like you’re beating up on somebody who lost their home in a fire?” she asked.

From Los Angeles Times ● Apr. 6, 2026

It was de Tocqueville who famously argued, “Scarcely any political question arises in the United States that is not resolved, sooner or later, into a judicial question.”

From Slate ● Oct. 27, 2023

For China’s leader, Xi Jinping, the unrest is a test of his precedent-breaking third term in power and underscores the urgent political question of how he can lead China out of the Covid era.

From New York Times ● Nov. 24, 2022

The difficulty of procuring from the people of the United States an unequivocal decision upon any political question, and of expressing that decision in legislative enactment, is familiar to every student of our history.

From Belford's Magazine, Volume II, No. 8, January, 1889 by Various