Buckle up: The radical revision to the country’s balance of power that voters ordered on Tuesday will bring some constitutional stress tests. The GOP’s collapse could help wind down the current era of hardball politics or precipitate a rupture in the constitutional system.

The first test, already on everyone’s mind, involves the intensity of the coming Democratic investigations of the Trump administration and people associated with it. Powerful committees in the House and Senate — presumably staffed by an influx of amped-up liberal lawyers — will take on a quasi-prosecutorial role in probing alleged abuses, such as extrajudicial killings of suspected drug-runners, noncompliance with judicial orders and financial self-dealing. Though congressional investigators can’t bring charges, they can create a road map for future prosecutors.

The people and institutions targeted by the avalanche of Democratic subpoenas will fight them, but how much relief will they find in court? Steve Bannon and Peter Navarro both went to jail for resisting subpoenas from the House select committee that investigated the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol riot; the coming investigations will presumably sweep more broadly. The lower federal courts in Washington lean left and are likely to be a favorable venue for congressional Democrats. Though the Supreme Court takes a broad view of executive immunity, some justices might be hesitant to spend political capital shielding a severely weakened........

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