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ACORN argues Congress lacked authority to cut its federal funds
Source:
(AHN)
Reporter:
Tom Ramstack
Location:
Washington, D.C., United States
Published:
June 15, 2011 04:55 pm EDT
Topics:
Crime, Law And Justice, Laws, Civil, Crime, Law And Justice, Punishment, Fine, Social Issue, Charity
The community activist organization ACORN expects to hear soon whether the Supreme Court will review its lawsuit challenging the authority of Congress to block its federal funding.
The Supreme Court justices are scheduled to meet Thursday to decide which appeals will be granted hearings and which will not advance beyond lower court rulings.
ACORN’s lawsuit could test the authority of Congress to punish organizations lawmakers believe engage in wrongful behavior.
ACORN claims in its appeal to the Supreme Court that Congress imposed a “bill of attainder” on the organization after allegations arose of dishonesty among its employees.
A bill of attainder refers to acts by legislators who pass laws to punish an individual or organization without a trial. They are forbidden by the Constitution.
ACORN, which stands for the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now, is a nonprofit organization that refers to itself in ads as “the nation’s largest grassroots community organization of low- and moderate-income people.”
After its founding in 1970, ACORN grew quickly by assisting low-income persons with voter registration, health care, affordable housing and other social justice issues. The organization also won friends among liberals in Congress and in state legislatures, some of whom helped it to win grants.
ACORN’s popularity ended quickly in 2009, when conservative activists secretly filmed ACORN employees advising a woman posing as a prostitute how to hide her illegal income source from the Internal Revenue Service. The video was shown on national news broadcasts.
ACORN’s management fired the employees who gave the advice, but it was not enough to prevent the Internal Revenue Service from removing the organization from its volunteer tax-assistance program.
Later investigations created allegations of improprieties in ACORN’s voter registration drives and suspicions that a top ACORN associate embezzled money, but no one was prosecuted.
Congress responded by voting to ban ACORN from receiving federal funding.
ACORN sued, saying Congress had no authority to single out one organization for punishment without a trial to prove its guilt.
The lawsuit did nothing to prevent ACORN’s fortunes from falling.
By March 2010, half of ACORN’s 30 state chapters had shut down and two others severed ties with the organization.
ACORN announced on March 22, 2010 that it would close its state chapters and disband after private donations and government funding fell off.
ACORN won a U.S. District Court judgment that said Congress violated the Constitution when it passed a resolution barring ACORN from receiving federal funds.
Last August, a federal appeals court reversed the decision. The appeals court said the fact ACORN received only 10 percent of its funding from the federal government showed the resolution was not enough of a punishment to be a bill of attainder.
“The [appeals court] decision … constitutes a dangerous precedent that would permit Congress or state legislators to single out unpopular corporations or organizations for a ban on contracts or funding based on public clamor against that entity for alleged wrongdoing,” ACORN says in its petition to the Supreme Court.
Justice Department attorneys argued in response that Congress was merely trying to prevent mismanagement of federal funds.
The issue is not that Congress is punishing ACORN for what some critics might say is disputed evidence of criminal acts, the Justice Department’s attorneys argued.
“Rather, the issue is whether Congress is the branch of government empowered to decide whether a specific organization is guilty of mismanagement or other crimes and impose a serious deprivation on that organization,” their Supreme Court brief says.
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