Dahlia Lithwick writes:

It is probably safe to say that this is not how we imagined America’s little fling with representative democracy would end. But on Wednesday morning, New York Rep. Jerrold Nadler described the battle unfolding between the Trump White House and Congress thusly: “The ongoing clash between congressional Democrats and President Trump over the Mueller report has turned into a full-blown constitutional crisis.” On Thursday morning, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi used the same turn of phrase, warning that the nation is now in a “constitutional crisis.”

In the totality of Trump scandals, this week’s is rather boring and technical. The problem at hand: The House Judiciary Committee seeks to interview William Barr, the attorney general of the United States, on the subject of the Mueller report. When he refused to show up, they voted to hold him in contempt of Congress for doing so. Meanwhile, the president has opted to assert seemingly boundless executive privilege in an attempt to shield the unredacted Mueller report from congressional scrutiny. The question at hand is basically: What happens in this standoff between Congress and the president? The stalemate, and immovable positioning, is certainly making it feel as though we are hurtling at high speeds toward a new precipice.

As Adam Liptak concluded in the New York Times Tuesday, we are clearly facing an impending threat to our established constitutional order. (As a refresher, that order, as laid out in the Constitution, is that Congress is tasked with overseeing the executive branch, but the executive branch can keep designated things secret.) Even John Yoo, architect of the infamous Bush-era torture memos, seemed to agree that the constitutional impasse we’ve reached is without precedent. As former federal prosecutor Mimi Rocah explains, the White House’s sweeping refusal to cooperate with Congress on any investigation has the makings of a constitutional crisis, because “the head of the Justice Department” is now helping block congressional investigations into the president “regardless of law or merit.” [Continue reading…]