JACK BALKIN WRITES about the Padilla case:

No one is going to mistake Padilla for a choirboy. He is a member of a Chicago street gang. He may well be up to no good, and if he violated the law, he should be punished for his crimes. But he is also a United States citizen. The rights of citizens include the rights in our Bill of Rights, including the Sixth Amendment right to counsel. Those rights apply whether one is good or bad, whether one is guilty or innocent, and whether one is a Muslim, a Jew or a Christian.

The Justice Department was wrong to insist that by simply designating some one an enemy combatant, the Executive can strip away the basic constitutional protections that all citizens enjoy. If the government can strip away Padilla’s rights at will, it can strip away yours and mine. When you give government arbitrary power, eventually it will use that power arbitrarily.

I agree. I have no problem with the detention of illegal combatants from Al Qaeda. But we need a firewall where U.S. citizens are concerned, because without it, there’s a risk that such power will be used against political opponents, something that is deeply corrupting.