By Hina Shamsi, Director, ACLU National Security Project & Chris Anders, Senior Legislative Counsel, ACLU Washington Legislative Office

Whatever you may think of the harms carried out by the group referred to as the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS), the fear of ISIS is now creating a double threat to our system of checks and balances. We now have a Congress so anxious to avoid tough votes that it is ducking any decision on whether to go to war in Iraq and Syria, and a president who is grabbing unprecedented power to take the country to war all on his own.