Laurence Tribe, a Harvard law professor, and Joshua Matz also make this argument in a forthcoming epilogue to the paperback edition of “To End a Presidency,” their book about impeachment:

“The president wins — and everyone else loses — when the main framework for evaluating his conduct is whether it will trigger impeachment. By battling on that terrain, [Trump] preemptively sets aside most standards by which a democracy should judge its leader. He also invigorates his base by turning every dispute into a referendum on his continued tenure in office.”

I think that House Democrats should instead hold a series of hearings to uncover and highlight Trump’s illegal and unconstitutional behavior, especially his corruption, shady business practices and violation of campaign-finance law. Hearings like those — combined, at some point, with more findings from Robert Mueller — seem like they would have the best chance of cutting into Trump’s support from Republican voters and ultimately members of Congress. If that happens, impeachment would have a better chance at success.

But I encourage you to read both the Appelbaum and Tomasky pieces. Each does a nice job of laying out its case.

Another Merrick Garland decision

Yesterday’s Supreme Court order against transgender troops in the military joins the list of cases likely decided by Senate Republicans’ refusal to let President Barack Obama fill a court vacancy in 2016. They ignored Obama’s nominee, Merrick Garland, and instead held the seat open. President Trump filled it in 2017 with Neil Gorsuch.

Yesterday’s order was another 5-4 vote, with all the Republican-appointed justices in the majority and all the Democrat-appointed justices in the minority. The order allows the Trump administration’s ban on transgender troops to go into effect temporarily, while lower courts consider challenges to the policy.

Every time one of these 5-4 votes occurs — along partisan lines — it’s worth remembering that the Garland stonewall likely determined the outcome.

Russell Baker

I grew up reading Russell Baker, both his columns on the Times Op-Ed page and his memoir, “Growing Up.” He was one of the giants of 20th century journalism and probably the wittiest of those giants.

Baker died Monday. His Times obituary was written by Robert D. McFadden, who joined The Times in 1961, only seven years after Baker did. You can browse through some of Baker’s old columns here. If you haven’t yet read his memoir, or even if you have, I highly recommend it.

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