Just as I predicted, Obama's old friends over at ACORN benefited from some nifty judge shopping and have scored an important court win that allows them to continue to be funded in their nefarious activities by your tax dollars:
NEW YORK — The U.S. government's move this fall to cut off funding to ACORN was unconstitutional, a federal judge ruled Friday, handing the embattled group a legal victory.
U.S. District Judge Nina Gershon issued the preliminary injunction against the government, saying it's in the public's interest for the organization to continue receiving federal funding.
ACORN claimed in its lawsuit that Congress' decision to cut off its funding was unconstitutional because it punitively targeted an individual organization.
Gershon said in her ruling that ACORN had raised a "fundamental issue of separation of powers. They have been singled out by Congress for punishment that directly and immediately affects their ability to continue to obtain federal funding, in the absence of any judicial, or even administrative, process adjudicating guilt."
Bill Quigley, the legal director of the Center for Constitutional Rights, which brought the lawsuit on behalf of ACORN and two affiliates, said the decision sends a sharp message to Congress that it can't single out an individual or organization without due process.
"It's a resounding victory for ACORN," he said. "I'd be surprised if the government decides to appeal."
So would I. As Andrew Breitbart has repeatedly said, Obama's Justice Department has declined to even go through the motions of investigating ACORN's criminal activities, so of course there's been no judicial process whatsoever.
It was Congress who reacted to the revulsion felt by the American people after the Big Government videos surfaced by passing a bi-partisan bill calling for a block on ACORN's federal funding. That block expired as of December 18th, 2009 and this makes it official.
The legal logic involved in calling this an unconstitutional bill of attainder is about what you'd expect from a reliably leftard Clinton appointee.
A bill of attainder 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.
To follow Judge Gershon's logic, 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.
According to Judge Gershon, 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 voter fraud,prostitution, and mortgage fraud 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.
The case being filed in Brooklyn is interesting too, since ACORN is headquartered in DC and the Congressional legislation that's been dubbed 'unconstitutional' took place there as well.
However, Brooklyn just happens to be the Congressional district represented by ACORN apologist and ally Jerolld Nadler, as well as the home of ACORN's capo del tutti and CEO Bertha Lewis. It’s also the home base of the so-called Working Families Party, a far Left political party co-founded by ACORN. Nadler by an odd coincidence, runs on the Working Families ticket.
Once you know that Nadler contacted ACORN’s attorney Arthur Z. Schwartz to "discuss the group’s legal strategy" after Congress voted to defund ACORN back in October, it's not too hard to connect the dots.
And I'd be very surprised if the Obama White House wasn't into this neck deep as well. If you look at Zero's new 'austere' budget, guess what - ACORN is slated to possibly receive as much as $4 billion in federal dollars via a congressional slush fund known as the Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) program, part of HUD's $48.5 billion fiscal 2011 budget.
Since the budget was prepared in advance of the verdict, could it be, just maybe, that the Obama Administration knew where Judge Gershon was going with this in advance?
It's the Chicago way, know what I mean?
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