ACORN and Congress: How ACORN Could Sue Their Way to Regain Federal Funds

“You know, if — frankly, it’s not really something I’ve followed closely. I didn’t even know that ACORN was getting a whole lot of federal money.”
Barrack Obama, September 20, 2009, ABC’s This Week

Politico had an interesting piece about Congress cutting ties to ACORN and what’s known as a “bill of attainder”.

Glenn Thrush at Politico wrote:

The hastily passed House ban on ACORN funding last week launched a thousand press releases and a thousand talk radio rants, but it might take a single lawsuit to blow it out of the water.

Article 1, Sections 9 and 10, of the Constitution explicitly prohibit the passage of “bills of attainder”: legislation targeted to benefit or penalize an individual or group, most often by excluding it from government service.

Does the House’s Defund ACORN Act, which passed 345-75 last week, constitute a bill of attainder? The case law on the issue is inconclusive, but it’s provided a glimmer for ACORN’s diminishing cadre of defenders.

And this:

ACORN’s post-vote statement hinted at a bill-of-attainder defense, calling the action a “politically convenient step of attempting to eliminate federal funding for a single organization.”

The site, Tech Law Journal, has this definition of bill of attainder:

Definition: A legislative act that singles out an individual or group for punishment without a trial.

And Supreme Court Judge William H. Renquist’s interpretation:

“These clauses of the Constitution are not of the broad, general nature of the Due Process Clause, but refer to rather precise legal terms which had a meaning under English law at the time the Constitution was adopted. A bill of attainder was a legislative act that singled out one or more persons and imposed punishment on them, without benefit of trial. Such actions were regarded as odious by the framers of the Constitution because it was the traditional role of a court, judging an individual case, to impose punishment.” William H. Rehnquist, The Supreme Court, page 166.

Rehnquist’s interpretation laid the groundwork for an entity to sue after being “punished” by Congress-in ACORN’s case cutting off their federal funds-which ACORN may claim legislation deemed “punishment” without the benefit of a trial, and thus, a bill of attainder.

This could be construed as ACORN inadvertently or overtly throwing down a gauntlet to Congress, as Congress has the power to open up widespread investigations, hearings, and the power to subpoena ACORN.

The President, through his Department of Justice, has the same power to investigate ACORN. Even so, Obama’s response to ACORN and Congress voting to cut off their funds was rather revealing: Obama, when pressed, stated that he “wasn’t following closely” what was “going on” with ACORN, that it wasn’t a “big priority”. From Obama Clueless on ACORN Videos: Gives Interview on ABC’s This Week:

STEPHANOPOULOS: How about the funding for ACORN?

OBAMA: You know, if — frankly, it’s not really something I’ve followed closely. I didn’t even know that ACORN was getting a whole lot of federal money.

To be fair, Obama also called for an investigation:

STEPHANOPOULOS: Congress has just cut off…

OBAMA: Is — is…

STEPHANOPOULOS: …all funding for ACORN.

OBAMA: It’s…

STEPHANOPOULOS: Are you for that?

OBAMA: Is that true on the other side, as well?

Of course that’s true.

STEPHANOPOULOS: How about the funding for ACORN?

OBAMA: You know, if — frankly, it’s not really something I’ve followed closely. I didn’t even know that ACORN was getting a whole lot of federal money.

STEPHANOPOULOS: Both the Senate and the House have voted to cut it off.

OBAMA: You know, what I know is, is that what I saw on that video was certainly inappropriate and deserves to be investigated.

STEPHANOPOULOS: So you’re not committing to — to cut off the federal funding?

OBAMA: George, this is not the biggest issue facing the country. It’s not something I’m paying a lot of attention to.

Obama called for an “investigation” yet didn’t specify what “type” of investigation or by whom. He also refused to answer as to whether he’d commit to cutting off federal funding for Acorn.

The exchange between Obama and Stephanopoulos occurred yesterday during a pre-taped interview shot on Friday, September 19. Nine days after the first of the five ACORN videos surfaced. The first time a member of the press had queried Obama about the ACORN scandal. The first time the public heard Obama and not his press secretary, give his own personal views on the growing ACORN scandal.

The Justice Department’s biggest priority these days: going after the CIA.

The Senate and Congress votes are just one step in the process of legislating ACORN’s federal money gravy train. Both initiatives wouldn’t take effect until the bills they’ve been attached to clear Congress and are signed into law by President Obama.

So far, the efforts to cease and desist handing over tax payer’s money to ACORN has been bi-partisan. In the House, the votes were 345-75-the nay sayers all Dems. The vote came on a provision attached to a student aid bill.

More from Michelle Malkin on the Senate’s Johanns Amendment:

Just watched GOP Sen. Mike Johanns introduce his amendment on the Senate floor banning federal funds in the current transportation and housing appropriations bill from going to ACORN. Currently, ACORN is eligible to receive millions more in taxpayer funds through mortgage counseling, Community Development Block Grants, and the Neighborhood Stabilization Program — in addition to the tens of millions ACORN Housing Corp. has already received.

The amendment passed with a highly bipartisan vote: 83-7

If Obama were to sign on the dotted line, ACORN could sue, claiming the bill of attainder defense. An ACORN lawsuit would most likely force ACORN to “open up its books” and require testimony on its myriad of operations. They’d have to defend ACORN CEO Bertha Lewis’ September 14th statement, where Lewis claimed the “group” received “most of its funding from from “its members and other supporters, so the decision will have little impact on overall operations.”

If Obama were to refuse to sign a bill, he’d risk being seen as thumbing his nose at legislation that was bipartisan at a time when Democrats and Obama claim Republicans have been “undermining” his administration at every juncture. Obama would also risk the public’s perception that he was “in bed” with ACORN.

It’s worth noting that the ACORN “hint” of threatening to claim “a bill of attainder” occurred after the Senate and House voted to defund ACORN and the U.S. Census Bureau severed its ties to ACORN. Prior to the votes in both houses ACORN’s defense was to threaten to sue FOX News, the website Breitbart.com, and the two document filmmakers who went undercover and surreptitiously filmed ACORN workers giving them advise on how to file taxes on a brothel of young underage illegal immigrant girls, tax advice on how to hide their profits from the IRS, and how to hide their “business” from the authorities.

ACORN also issued this statement on September 14th:

“It is clear that the videos are doctored, edited, and in no way the result of the fabricated story being portrayed by conservative activist ‘filmmaker’ O’Keefe and his partner in crime,’ ACORN chief organizer Bertha Lewis said in a statement over the weekend. “And, in fact, a crime it was—our lawyers believe a felony—and we will be taking legal action against Fox and their co-conspirators.”

On September 11, ACORN board member Margaret Williams claimed the undercover videos were a Republican “smear job”:

In a statement, ACORN Maryland board member Margaret Williams said the video was an attempt to smear ACORN, and that undercover teams attempted similar setups in at least three other ACORN offices. Williams said no tax returns were filed and no assistance was provided.

No sooner had the Senate and the House taken action when ACORN reversed it’s stance and released this statement two days later on September 16th:

ACORN will work with its advisory council, which includes prominent supporters of President Barack Obama, such as John Podesta, president of the nonprofit Center for American Progress, and Andrew Stern, president of the Service Employees International Union, to name an independent auditor and investigator, ACORN chief executive Bertha Lewis said in a written statement.

The investigation will examine all the systems and processes called into question by the video, Lewis said.

In addition, ACORN won’t accept new admissions into its community service programs, effective immediately, and within the next few days will conduct staff training, she said.

By LBG

Image – Obama ACORN Tree

Tags: ACORN, Bertha Lewis, Bill of attainder, bipartisan, CEO, Congress, corruption, federal funds, grants, House, investigation, lawsuit, legislation, Obama, senate, sue, Supreme Court, undercover, videos, vote