Writing in The New York Times, University of Chicago law professor Eric Posner and journalist Emily Bazelon identify one positive aspect of Donald Trump’s “serial recklessness” as president: He has forced the other two branches of the federal government to assert themselves, constraining executive powers that his two most recent predecessors worked hard to expand. Except that Posner and Bazelon bizarrely view that development as ominous, warning that the checks on Trump “may ultimately diminish the power of the office,” leaving it “too weak for future presidents to be able to govern effectively.”

Posner and Bazelon cite two main ways in which Congress and the courts have challenged Trump: the congressional investigations of Russian meddling in last year’s presidential election, including the Trump campaign’s possible involvement, and the judicial decisions that so far have prevented Trump’s executive orders restricting admission to the United States from taking effect. Posner and Bazelon seem to view both responses as understandable but regrettable, not so much because they are legally unsound but because they may have a lasting impact on presidential power—as if that would be a bad thing.