With Sotomayor having replaced Souter, we now have a 6-3 Republican-Democrat split in the Supreme Court, but still the same old 5-4 split between the insanely conservative and everyone else. Most of the federal judiciary isn't tilted quite that wildly to the right, but you're right that it's tilted pretty strongly, and we're seeing the effects of that. The Republicans are no longer a party of government restraint. They're a party in favor of a kingly president -- at least when he's part of their own party. This discretion to near-absolute authority for the Executive in security matters is part of that.