POLITICAL QUESTION DOCTRINE
This doctrine refers to constitutional violations that the federal courts will not adjudicate. The four types of non-justiciable political questions are are follows:
The US shall guarantee to each state a Republican form of government (Art. IV, Sec. 4).
Challenges to the President's conduct of foreign policy such as receiving an ambassador or attending an international summit.
Challenges to the impeachment and removal process. For instance, Judge Walter Nixon was impeached and the Senate set up a panel of Senators to remove him. He sued to get the entire Senate involved instead of just a committee. The Court said, "Too bad," because this is a political question.
Challenges to party gerrymandering are not challengeable. Gerrymandering occurs when jurisdiction lines are drawn to benefit a political party.
I have a big problem with this last case. Gerrymandering has been used throughout our Nation's history to manipulate elections of all sorts. Citizens should be allowed to challenge such issues in order to protect the integrity of our elections and thus the political process. If governments are allowed to draw lines wherever they want, they can directly influence who, and what party, gets elected in any given jurisdiction.
Such a disgrace is repugnant to justice and the ideal on which this country is founded; "No taxation without representation." If jurisdictional lines are gerrymandered to prevent certain parties or individuals from being elected then the people are not truly electing their leaders. The whole point of this country was that the people, if they are being taxed, should have a right to decide who is taxing them, who is making the big decisions. Gerrymandering directly takes this right away. If people cannot challenge such a practice the abuse will be continued into perpetuity.
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