By Daniel Nardini
From my perspective, the third estate is truly in charge of the United States (the first estate being the executive or presidency, the second estate being the legislature or U.S. Congress, and the third estate being the judiciary or court system). Current U.S. President Donald Trump is proving to be a very divisive and incompetent leader. He is more interested in going beyond the U.S. Constitution (i.e. established law) to run the country as his personal fiefdom. This is not working. In the end, the U.S. judiciary has established itself as the true power-broker of what can and cannot be done. No matter how many times Trump wins or loses (more often than not he loses in court), the ultimate authority is the judiciary. In the beginning of his term, Trump tried to completely ignore the courts—even the U.S. Supreme Court. The problem with this is that the judiciary sees itself as the guardian of the U.S. Constitution—the legal framework of the very machinery that runs the country itself.
This is a very powerful weapon to wield against both the executive and legislative branches of government. Any proclamation that the president may sign or any bills passed by the legislature must be reviewed by the judiciary so that any of it is constitutional. If so, it stands. If not, it is thrown out and declared invalid. This gives enormous power to the judiciary that the two other branches of government do not have. And if the executive branch completely ignores the judiciary, it does so at its own peril. The U.S. Supreme Court gave Trump presidential immunity for presidential acts, and it can revoke them. If Trump’s presidential authority is revoked, he no longer has Secret Service protection, no longer can have any of his arguments heard in any court room, and can no longer command the U.S. armed forces or any of the internal federal authorities. It was the U.S. Supreme Court that has made it clear that the executive has official authority through the U.S. Constitution only through the judiciary.
The judiciary has made it clear it is the final arbiter of what the law is, and anything else is unacceptable overreach. Though obviously not part of the U.S. government, the news media has been considered the “fourth estate” because it has a considerable influence on how the U.S> government works. Despite Trump’s attempts to stifle the U.S. news media, many news outlets and certainly youtubers will not kowtow to the god king. They will not only report what he says, what he does, but also analyze why and give their opinions in commentaries or editorials. This is what a free press does, and that despite everything both past and present the press in the United States largely does. what it has done ever since the founding of the republic—report the news unfettered by whoever is in power. Trump trying to muzzle the press is nothing new. This happened as far back as the 1790’s, with the newly founded republic using the Sedition Act to actually put people in jail for their reporting. The Sedition Act, passed in 1798, tried to muzzle criticism of the U.S. government under then U.S. President John Adams over America’s policies with France.
I can safely say that the third and fourth estates are still a healthy part of the United States landscape and because of the judiciary we still live in a constitutional republic. I cannot say the same for the first and second estates. We have a presidency that is out of control and a legislature that has abdicated all responsibility except maybe being the acolytes of Donald Trump. What Trump is doing now is greatly damaging the social, economic and political fabric of this country that may affect us for years if not decades to come. Now that Trump has bombed Iran, he may have put the United States on a collision course with the unstable politics and conflicts in that region (as had happened with Iraq in 2003). It takes all three branches of the U.S. government to function properly, and I have a real fear for where our country is going.
The Third and Fourth Estates
By Daniel Nardini
This is a very powerful weapon to wield against both the executive and legislative branches of government. Any proclamation that the president may sign or any bills passed by the legislature must be reviewed by the judiciary so that any of it is constitutional. If so, it stands. If not, it is thrown out and declared invalid. This gives enormous power to the judiciary that the two other branches of government do not have. And if the executive branch completely ignores the judiciary, it does so at its own peril. The U.S. Supreme Court gave Trump presidential immunity for presidential acts, and it can revoke them. If Trump’s presidential authority is revoked, he no longer has Secret Service protection, no longer can have any of his arguments heard in any court room, and can no longer command the U.S. armed forces or any of the internal federal authorities. It was the U.S. Supreme Court that has made it clear that the executive has official authority through the U.S. Constitution only through the judiciary.
The judiciary has made it clear it is the final arbiter of what the law is, and anything else is unacceptable overreach. Though obviously not part of the U.S. government, the news media has been considered the “fourth estate” because it has a considerable influence on how the U.S> government works. Despite Trump’s attempts to stifle the U.S. news media, many news outlets and certainly youtubers will not kowtow to the god king. They will not only report what he says, what he does, but also analyze why and give their opinions in commentaries or editorials. This is what a free press does, and that despite everything both past and present the press in the United States largely does. what it has done ever since the founding of the republic—report the news unfettered by whoever is in power. Trump trying to muzzle the press is nothing new. This happened as far back as the 1790’s, with the newly founded republic using the Sedition Act to actually put people in jail for their reporting. The Sedition Act, passed in 1798, tried to muzzle criticism of the U.S. government under then U.S. President John Adams over America’s policies with France.
I can safely say that the third and fourth estates are still a healthy part of the United States landscape and because of the judiciary we still live in a constitutional republic. I cannot say the same for the first and second estates. We have a presidency that is out of control and a legislature that has abdicated all responsibility except maybe being the acolytes of Donald Trump. What Trump is doing now is greatly damaging the social, economic and political fabric of this country that may affect us for years if not decades to come. Now that Trump has bombed Iran, he may have put the United States on a collision course with the unstable politics and conflicts in that region (as had happened with Iraq in 2003). It takes all three branches of the U.S. government to function properly, and I have a real fear for where our country is going.