5 of our top opinion pieces this week: ICYMI

In today's fast-paced news environment, it can be hard to keep up. For your weekend reading, we've started in-case-you-missed-it compilations of some the week's top USA TODAY Opinion pieces. As always, thanks for reading, and for your feedback.

— USA TODAY Opinion editors

1. Mueller report: Donald Trump failed us as commander in chief

By Tom Nichols

"A president determined to defend the nation would take the Mueller report as a mark of shame, and then support a full and bipartisan investigation of the security of our election process. A president who takes seriously his oath as commander in chief would, in a better administration, be in shock to realize the astonishing level of penetration of his inner circle by agents of the Russian Federation. He would clean house and demand to know how his own campaign and how people who might still have access to the West Wing became threats to national security."

2. I'm a poor kid at an elite college. Bribes are not the reason my wealthy peers are here

By Dylan Hernandez

"Coming from someone who didn’t have family and high-status networks to draw on, it is unbecoming to vilify students who do have those privileges. Don’t delude yourself pretending we’re all coming from the same starting point, but don’t let reality sap your optimism, either. Instead, confront the inequity by out-working, over-preparing and tapping resources. It can be stressful knowing a few tiny mistakes might close doors and my chance at ascent could vanish."

3. I've warned that impeachment talk is dangerous, but the time has come

By Laurence Tribe

"Congress has a duty to provide a beacon of principle and democratic values to the American people. It must pick up the baton that Mueller has offered and come to a judgment of its own, with the understanding that conduct that falls short of criminal conspiracy may nonetheless be impeachable. Consider, for instance, candidate Trump’s public call for the help of the Russian state in defeating Hillary Clinton — met within hours, the special counsel charged, by Russian attempts to hack domains used by her campaign and personal office. Read together with Mueller’s report, this incident exposes the welcome that Trump and his circle extended to foreign support in manipulating the U.S. electorate. This behavior, whether called “collusion” or something else, is exactly the kind of conduct the Framers had in mind when they created procedures for impeachment."

4. Age and term limits needed for president, Supreme Court, Congress

By Marshall Frank

"Do we want our highest court judges and congressional representatives making the most crucial of decisions when they are far past their prime? Particularly disturbing is how much time members of the House must devote toward running for their next elections because they run every two years. Not much time is left for serving the people. Common sense dictates we need term limits for all the high level representatives in government, with a cutoff at age 80 for the Supreme Court justices. That’s not being cruel, that's being sensible."

5. My mom died trying to preserve the legacy of her son. Keeping kids out of solitary will preserve hers.

By Deion Browder

"Over the past few years, the country has heard the harrowing story of my brother Kalief Browder, a 16 year-old who was jailed at Rikers Island for three years for allegedly stealing a backpack. However, what the country doesn’t really know is the impact my brother’s detention and death had on my family, especially my mother, Venida Browder. My mother blamed herself for Kalief’s detention because she couldn’t afford the $3,000 bail money. She cried herself to sleep every night while he was away, filled with guilt for not being able to help her child. Still, through that pain she went to visit him every day. When the charges against Kalief were finally dismissed and he was able to come home, we were all overjoyed, but no one more than my mother. However, our joy soon turned to grief."