Just when the neo-cons think they're making progress in converting
America to a nation that will be more easily controlled (by neo-cons,
of course), some "activist judge" steps forward with the Constitution
and some quaint, old-fashioned, idea that political expediency doesn't
usurp legal principles about due process, (including the right to a
fair and speedy trial).

Whatever Padilla might have done, it could not possibly damage the
country any more than adopting a policy under which the government
locks people up simply because the government thinks they might be
guilty and if the government decides it can't find or manufacture
enough evidence to prevail in court the "suspect" is then left to rot
in jail, without trial, for the rest of his life.

Gulag justice has no place in a free society.