Padilla, as an American citizen arrested in America should have been promptly provided an attorney or granted access to the attorney of his hiring and immediately charged with a crime or set free. Period. End of story.
This is good news, finally. Padilla might well be a traitor and deserving of the death penalty, but he is a Citizen whose rights cannot be taken away without due process. Let the charges be proven in open court, to a jury of fellow citizens.
If the government can ignore the rights of one citizen, it can do the same to any and all of us.
The constitution lives.