"nominal authority" is an acceptable phrase in written English.
It is often used when referring to someone who has the title of a position but does not actually have the power or influence associated with it. For example, "The mayor had nominal authority, but the real power resided with the city council."
The unity government exerts only nominal authority over them.
Above all, he has regained at least nominal authority over Gaza.
Back then, in the late 1970's through the mid-80's, SUNY trustees had the nominal authority to raise tuition on their own.
The capital, Mogadishu, is under the president's nominal authority and even hosted its first international music festival in a quarter of a century earlier this month.
The governing council of Mr. Arafat's Fatah movement proposed that one of its members, Nasser Yousef, be made minister of interior, a post that has nominal authority over the security services.
One of the greatest of the 9th-century Scandinavian warrior chiefs, he gained effective control of Norway's western coastal districts but probably had only nominal authority in the other parts of Norway.
Many Israeli officials have already indicated that Israel would be amenable to a deal in which the Gaza crossings were opened with an international presence and a nominal Palestinian Authority presence — as long as it isn't Hamas.
With the emergence in the 12th and 13th centuries of such powerful feudal families as the Montefeltro of Urbino and the Malatesta of Pesaro (and Rimini), turbulent times set in aggravated by the desire of the popes to reestablish their temporal authority, nominal in the area since the 8th century.
The prospect that the generals will still hold most power even after their nominal handover of authority to civilians by July 1 has deepened the gloom, leaving some feeling the vote was essentially meaningless.
By now, though, there's a well-settled precedent for how any president is to act in such cases, making that authority more nominal than significant.
Gen. Abdul Rahman Rahimi, was a Pashtun; the fact that the vast majority of his men were Andarabi Tajiks rendered him largely ineffectual, his authority mostly nominal.
