Goldwater vs Carter

Facts

1. President Carter terminated a defense treaty with Taiwan without

the Congress approval
2. Congress Claims that that the unilateral act of the president has
deprived them of their constitutional role in changing the law of
the land
3. Congress did not undertook any official action to address the
issue.

Issue
1. Is this issue of whether a President can terminate a treaty
without Congressional approval a non-justiciable political
question?
Held
1. Case was dismissed.

2. The majority of the opinion of the court concurred on the case

being nonjusticiable political in its character.
3. The rationale for the court in not interfering with the dispute
between the president and the congress in this case: The
differences should, and almost invariably do, turn on political
rather than legal considerations. The Judicial Branch should not
decide issues affecting the allocation of power between the
President and Congress until the political branches reach a
constitutional impasse. Otherwise, we would encourage small
groups or even individual Members of Congress to seek judicial

resolution of issues before the normal political process has the

opportunity to resolve the conflict.