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Today's Top News
Judge Says Gov’t Must Allow Funding for ACORN
A federal judge retained her position that it is unconstitutional for Congress to prevent funding for the activist group ACORN after a government request that she reconsider.
Bill Quigley, legal director for the Center for Constitutional Rights, was equally pleased by the outcome. "This is a rebuke of the smear tactics of the far right."(AP) U.S. District Judge Nina
Gershon cemented her earlier decision in December and made the
injunction against government intervention permanent, asking all federal
agencies to spread the word that money to ACORN be allowed without
delay.
The judge wrote that it was "unmistakable that Congress determined ACORN's guilt before defunding it." Congress may investigate ACORN but cannot "rely on the negative results of a congressional or executive report as a rationale to impose a broad, punitive funding ban on a specific, named organization."
The Center for Constitutional Rights had charged Congress in last year's case of violating the group's constitutional protections.
"This is why the Constitution contains a prohibition against Congress enacting a bill of attainder - to prevent Congress from acting as judge jury and executioner," said Jules Lobel, a cooperating attorney with the center.Bill Quigley, legal director for the center, was equally pleased by the outcome.
"We are pleased with the ruling made by Judge Nina Gershon today," Quigley said . "That Congress passed a budget, signed by President Obama, days after federal judge ruled bills of attainder unconstitutional shows just how intent these lawmakers are to target this one organization while violating their right to due process and freedom of association by targeting affiliated and allied organizations, as well. This is a rebuke of the smear tactics of the far right."
ACORN, or the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now, describes itself as an advocate for low-income and minority home buyers and residents.
Critics of the group say it has engaged in voter registration fraud and embezzlement and has violated the tax-exempt status of some of its affiliates by engaging in partisan political activities.
The criticism turned to public outrage after reports seemed to suggest a young conservative operative named James O'Keefe filmed himself dressed as a pimp while accompanying a woman posing as a prostitute and visited a number of ACORN offices asking for advice on how to hide his "business" in prostitution.
Of course, it turns out the tape was edited to produce the intended outcry: a Brooklyn District Attorney's Office found no criminal acts were committed by the ACORN employees.
At his blog, Brad Friedman has lambasted the media for not noting that "O'Keefe never dressed as a pimp in the offices of ACORN."
Although accused of poor leadership, ACORN never merited what The Nation called "a rightwing witch hunt" reminiscent of a New McCarthyism.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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14 Comments so far
Show AllThe criticism turned to public outrage after a young conservative operative named James O'Keefe filmed himself dressed as a pimp..
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This is 100% in ERROR.
Brad Friedman, at BradBlog, has exposed the fact that O'Keefe was NOT wearing the pimp costume in Acorn's offices.
He's challenged the N.Y. Times to print a retraction and they've refused.
You must read his excellent reporting and get the facts which are being CENSORED by all corporate media.
http://www.bradblog.com/?p=7714
That "rightwing witch hunt" against ACORN continues. Not long ago one of them was spouting off all the old line about ACORN, and I reminded them that ACORN had been cleared of the charges not once, but twice. Their response? "Well, I still say it's a corrupt, blah, blah blah ...!" A repeat of the whole rightwing bulls**t. That crowd won't let anything die unless it's the group, or the person they've gone after.
If the dems are trying to get the judge to change her ruling, makes me wonder what axe is being held over their heads.
There's no ax --they're complicit.
While I have always been a big supporter of the Center for Constitutional Rights, ACORN, and the advocacy work this organization undertakes on behalf of poor and working class Americans, I am uneasy with the legal reasoning in Judge Gershon's opinion.
The bill of attainder clause of the Constitution was violated because Congress "determined ACORN's guilt before defunding it." Although Congress could investigate, Congress could not "rely on the negative results of a congressional or executive report as a rationale to impose a broad, punitive funding ban on a specific, named organization."
Does that mean Blackwater and KBR cannot lawfully be defunded for ripping off taxpayers on their no-bid Iraq War contracts? If a Congressional Committee investigated diligently, and concluded that AIG and Goldman Sachs had engaged in massive, systematic fraud by first crashing the economy with their phony financial instruments, and then pocketing trillions of dollars in bail out money, is Congress powerless to punish the wrongdoers by cutting off future subsidies? If it was illegal for Congress to find ACORN guilty before cutting off their funding, is it really wiser social policy for Congress to defund organizations with no prior adjudication of guilt at all?
Historically, bills of attainder very properly were viewed as a potential threat to civil liberties because the legislature, by parliamentary act, was substituting its judgment of what constituted criminal wrongdoing for the fact findings of the court system. There may be mountains of evidence that Bernie Madoff was an unmitigated rascal, but Congress cannot collectively short circuit the criminal justice system by calling up a voice vote over whether this specific, named individual should be definitively decreed forever to be a felon.
Sure, ACORN was unfairly subjected to a right wing witch hunt both in the mainstream media and in the halls of Congress. But if the constitutional protections of individual citizens are extended by analogy to apply to progressive nonprofit "organizations", some really big, really bad corporations will be next in line to reap the long term benefits of this ruling.
Bill from Saginaw
If Congress found evidence of fraud in the actions of AIG, Goldman Sachs, or KBR, the appropriate action would be to refer the matter to the Justice Department.
Agree with you Bill. The bill of attainder should have to do with human beings, not legally created organizations, such as NPOs or corporations. Congress should be able to defund these organizations as Constitutional "personhood" rights should not apply. Congress should have taken it upon themselves to create a new bill and reverse their misdeed in defunding ACORN. I don't think they have done that yet. I also agree with another CD poster. There isn't nearly as much media attention for ACORN to recoup its image as there was in ruining its image.
What are the odds the MSM will give this news the coverage it gave O'Keefe's doctored film?
About the same as my cat growing thumbs and rolling a joint.
No, your cat's got a better chance -- she or he already has semi-opposable thumbs, just not quite long enough.
And in any case, I never met a cat who could roll a joint that didn't bogart it. ;)
Of course the Eric Massa story is sooooooo important as to trump any news as low on the corporate media's priority list as ACORN is.
This Massa bullshit has been on the tube all day on the "progressive" (and I use that term with supreme sarcasm) MSNBC since early this morning. These people make me retch!!
Right wing republicans using slander, smears, lies and nasty dirty tricks to get what they want???
Jesus would not let them, come on, the stazi right wing torture freaks that have been on my tail, for three years , 24/7 , cant be wrong, I am guilty of something,
its just taking them a really long time to build their witch hunting case,
or maybe they dont want me to clear my name and sue them for the damages they have caused me.
so they just keep on torturing me, want me to go crazy, well , fat chance, sooner or later warrantless survielance and immunity will be lifted, and verizon, fedx, the IAFF, ups and every infragard company and community watch group for every county that participated in my daily torture will pay.
The amount of crapaganda the wrongwingers send to elderly peolpe smearing ACORN is massive. I've had to print as many articles as I can find which support ACORN to give to my elderly father. He is convinced that ACORN is Satan himself. This is how the wrongwingers choose to spend money and waste our precious resources, lying to old people.
Acorn brings the poor and mariginalized into the political process, so people like Obama can betray them.