Leading Authority
The leading Supreme Court case in the area of political question doctrine is Baker v. Carr (1962). In the opinion written for Baker, the Court outlined six characteristics of a political question. These include:
- A "textually demonstrable constitutional commitment of the issue to a coordinate political department; or"
- A "lack of judicially discoverable and manageable standards for resolving it; or"
- The "impossibility for a court's independent resolution without expressing a lack of respect for a coordinate branch of the government; or"
- The "impossibility of deciding the issue without an initial policy decision, which is beyond the discretion of the court; or"
- An "unusual need for unquestioning adherence to a political decision already made; or"
- The "potentiality of embarrassment from multifarious pronouncements by various departments on one question."
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