ACORN Gets A Reprieve

It's amazing what a little judge shopping will do, if you have the right inside connections:

A federal judge blocked U.S. officials from enforcing a funding ban on Acorn, the beleaguered community organizer.

Congress cut off funding for Acorn -- the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now -- in September after Web sites and TV news outlets played secretly recorded videos in which employees of an affiliated organization offered advice on how to set up brothels and avoid paying taxes.

Acorn sued the federal government in November, arguing Congress had violated the Constitution by singling out the group. It says it has fired employees suspected of wrongdoing.

U.S. District Judge Nina Gershon in New York issued a temporary injunction late Friday. Her ruling is expected to stand until the current restrictions on Acorn expire next Friday as part of a temporary spending bill. A permanent ban, the Defund Acorn Act, has passed the House and is pending in the Senate.

Acorn's lawyers argued in part that Congress had violated the Constitution's ban on bills of attainder, legislation that punishes a specific person or group without the rights that courts provide. In making its argument, the Acorn lawyers included quotes from several Republicans accusing Acorn of being a criminal organization that deserved to be punished.

Here's the story behind the story. Judge Gershon is a reliable far Left activist as a quick glance of her decisions will show, appointed by President Clinton in 1996. The trial took place in Brooklyn, which in itself is interesting since ACORN is headquartered in DC and the Congressional legislation that's been dubbed 'unconstitutional' took place there as well.

Brooklyn is the Congressional district represented by ACORN apologist and ally Jerolld Nadler, as well as the home of ACORN's capo del tutti and chief organizer Bertha Lewis. It’s also the home base of the so-called Working Families Party, a far Left political party co-founded by ACORN. And wait for it - Nadler runs on the Working Families ticket and has been ACORN’s most vociferous defender in Congress.

After Congress voted to defund ACORN back in October, Nadler contacted ACORN’s attorney Arthur Z. Schwartz to "discuss the group’s legal strategy."

Anybody want to bet that Nadler didn't tip off Schwartz that Judge Gershon's court was a great place to file the suit and get ACORN's defunding overturned?

Judge Gerson's decision was based on Article 1, Section 9 of the Constitution that forbids Bills of Attainder, which can be loosely defined as legislation seizing property or taking away the civil rights of an entire group based on the actions of individuals belonging to that group.

That's kind of odd in itself...

The 'property' issue seems a non-starter, unless you feel like the taxpayer funds given to ACORN somehow constitute their 'property'. And yes, I realize they look at it that way, but I can't exactly see it is something they 'own' legally.

Judge Gershon also seems to feel that Congress has no power to exercise its Constitutional mandate to raise and allocate taxpayer funding, and that some sort of judgment of guilt by a court is required before Congress can exercise its major power to pull the plug on taxpayer funding for pimps, ho's and human trafficking, as well as all the other wonderful activities ACORN specializes in..

This is roughly the equivalent of Lockheed Martin/Boeing going to court and getting an injunction against the feds to stop them from cutting off funds for the F-22!

Like I said, ACORN and their allies picked the right judge.

Note that what Judge Gershon did was to issue an injunction, which simply stops a pending action. But as the article notes, her bogus ruling will likely hold until the temporary restrictions against ACORN expire - especially since the Obama Justice Department is unlikely to appeal anyjudgements favorable to ACORN, since ACORN is even higher on the food chain than the Black Panther Party when it comes to approval, grace and favor in this particular White House.

And given how the defunding bill is currently stuck in the Senate, that will probably never even get to the point where it passes and President Obama has to veto it.