political question. A question that a court will not consider because it involves the exercise of discretionary power by the executive or legislative branch of government. — Also termed nonjusticiable question. Cf. JUDICIAL QUESTION . [Cases: Constitutional Law 68. C.J.S. Constitutional Law § 176.]
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A political power specifically delegated to a governmental branch by a constitution. — Also termed express power. [Cases: Constitutional Law 25. C.J.S. Constitutional Law § 53.]
A political power that is not enumerated or prohibited by a constitution, but instead is reserved by the constitution for a specified political authority, such as a state government. See TENTH AMENDMENT.
sovereign power. The power to make and enforce laws. See sovereign political power under POLITICAL POWER.
temporality. 1. Civil or political power, as distinguished from ecclesiastical power. 2. (usu. pl.) The secular properties or revenues of an ecclesiastic.
nobility, n. pl. 1. Persons of social or political preeminence, usu. derived by inheritance or from the sovereign. • In English law, there are various degrees of nobility, or peerage, such as dukes, marquises, earls, viscounts, and barons, and their female counterparts. Nobility is generally created either by a writ of summons to sit in
magistratus (maj-[schwa]-stray-t[schwa]s), n. [fr. Latin magister “a master”] Roman law. 1. A magistrate. 2. A magistrate’s office. “Magistratus. Denotes both the public office and the official himself. Magistracy was a Republican institution; under the Principate some magistratus continued to exist but with gradually diminishing importance; in the post-Diocletian Empire some former magistracies still exist but
sovereign people. The political body consisting of the collective number of citizens and qualified electors who possess the powers of sovereignty and exercise them through their chosen representatives.
amnesty, n. A pardon extended by the government to a group or class of persons, usu. for a political offense; the act of a sovereign power officially forgiving certain classes of persons who are subject to trial but have not yet been convicted (the 1986 Immigration Reform and Control Act provided amnesty for undocumented aliens