Posted on Thu, Nov. 12, 2009
A non-profit organization filed a lawsuit against the federal government Thursday morning, seeking to overturn Congressional legislation that stopped the flow of federal funds to ACORN.
The suit, filed in federal court in New York, claims that legislation passed by the House and Senate to defund the group qualify as bills of attainder, legislation that unfairly targets one group. Such bills are unconstitutional.
The suit will seek to restore funding and roll-back the ban, which was passed as part of the legislative branch appropriations bill in September.
ACORN claims, among other things, that the legislation was of “malicious and punitive intent.”
OMB Director Peter Orszag and Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner are co-defendants in the suit, because of their role in facilitating the budgeting process.
Efforts to defund ACORN became popular among Democrats and Republicans after conservative activists caught the organization’s employees in several offices advising actors posing as a politician and his prostitute girlfriend on how to evade taxes and set up a brothel.
Sen. Mike Johanns (R-Neb.) and others in Congress quickly moved to ensure no federal funds were steered to the group – measures that got support from even the most ardent liberals like Rep. Barney Frank (D-Mass.). The language that the lawsuit targets is in the legislative branch appropriations bill.
The lawsuit, which is also brought by the Center for Constitutional Rights, says that ACORN has been subject to “heavily funded and orchestrated political campaigns.”
The court filing claims ACORN has been harmed by the de-funding provisions, having to lay off employees, close offices and “drastically” reduce services.
But the complaint also offers a small peek into and how much ACORN truly relies on the government for money. It cites FEMA pulling back roughly $1 million in funding for fire safety assessments after the legislation passed. The filing also shows that the organization lost out on a $780,000 EPA grant to educate poor communities about asthma and a separate grant to set up public computer centers for the poor in five cities.
And the suit highlights a few members of Congress as being especially critical of the group. Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Calif.) is cited as having “(attacked) ACORN for years.” It quotes Rep. Dan Burton (R-Ind.) trying to tie President Barack Obama to the group. And it cites Republican Reps. Steve King (Iowa) and Todd Akin (Mo.) calling an Obama campaign poster in ACORN’s headquarters a “Jeremiah Wright moment.”
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