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

“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

Mr Hinds insisted the payment timetable was an "administrative" matter to resolve, "not a political question".

From BBC • Oct. 11, 2021

This political question had not yet entered politics.

From The History of Woman Suffrage, Volume V by Harper, Ida Husted