New York: In the early days of Donald Trump's presidency, many progressive Americans dared to believe that maybe, just maybe, his election victory would not prove as consequential as they first feared. Yes, a man they thought dangerous and demagogic was in the White House but the other branches of government - Congress and the courts - were providing an effective brake on executive power.

In Trump's first year in office the Senate rejected the eradication of the Affordable Care Act and the Federal Court blocked his ban on people from several Muslim-majority countries from entering the United States.

Now, with the retirement of Supreme Court justice Anthony Kennedy on Wednesday, the true magnitude of Trump's victory has come into clearer focus than ever before. Kennedy's departure will allow Trump to shift the court decisively to the right, possibly for a generation, and opens the door to a rollback of access to abortion, gay rights and protections for minorities.

Trump is expected to replace the 81-year-old Kennedy with a young, more rigidly conservative, justice and lock in a 5-4 conservative majority on the court, a prospect that sent instant waves of panic throughout progressive America.