FACTS:

Senator Barry Goldwater and other members of Congress challenged President Jimmy Carter's termination of the
Mutual Defense Treaty with Taiwan without consulting or securing the prior approval of the Senate. Article II,
section 2, clause 2 of the Constitution states that the president has the power to make treaties, provided that two-
thirds of the Senate concurs. However, the Constitution does not address the question of how a treaty may be
abrogated.

ISSUE:
Whether or not President can abrogate by himself an international treaty

HELD:
The US Supreme Court left the question unanswered, the matter is not yet ripe for judicial review since it is one
having the nature of political question, hence, the judgment of the Court of Appeals is vacated and the case is
remanded to the District Court with directions to dismiss the complaint.

Justice William Rehnquist, in a concurring opinion joined by Chief Justice Warren Burger and Justices Potter
Stewart and John Paul Stevens, argued that this was a non-justiciable political question because it involved the
“authority of the President in the conduct of our country's foreign relations / specifically a treaty commitment to use
military force in the defense of a foreign government if attacked” (pp.1002-1004). The Court was “asked to settle a
dispute between coequal branches of government, each of which has resources available to protect and assert its
interests$ resources not available to private litigants outside the judicial forum” (p. 1004). Justice Lewis Powell
concurred separately, arguing that the issue was not ripe for judicial decision since Congress had not yet confronted
the president about the treaty.

Congress had challenged the President’s authority to terminate, then the court would have justiciable issue to decide.
Without a challenge the issue only involves a political question. Neither the Senate nor the House have taken any
action thereby rendering the case unripe for decision. There is no specific language preventing the President from
terminating treaties without approval. There is no showing that Congress has rejected the President’s claim. It is
Congress’ choice to challenge the President not theCourt’s.

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.