Fear is powerful. Powerful enough to throw off checks-and-balances; powerful enough to put bias into law (this of course is not surprising, as our laws ooze bias); powerful enough to erode the religious neutrality upon which we were founded.

The Trump administration has perfected the art of fear-mongering, and is using fear to deftly sweep away reason and balance-of-power. When there is a loose cannon in the Executive Branch and the legislature is embroiled in issue politics, we rely on the Supreme Court to take the rational, long-term view. But with this decision the Supreme Court has ridden the wave of fear and confirmed sweeping presidential authority with very nebulous limitations.

This is a problem, and one of which the court is well-aware. Justice Sotomayor wrote a passionate dissent; but ironically it’s the concurring majority statement from Justice Kennedy which contains one of the best cautions against the court’s ruling: “An anxious world … must know that our Government remains committed always to the liberties the Constitution seeks to preserve and protect, so that freedom extends outward, and lasts.”

Committed in principle, it would seem, but not in action. These anxious times just got scarier.