Defunding ACORN: Necessary and Proper, And Certainly Constitutional
by Hans von SpakovskyOn September 22, the Congressional Research Service issued a report that asserted that a bill voted on by the House of Representatives on September 17 to defund ACORN was possibly unconstitutional as a prohibited “bill of attainder.” However, as the Heritage Foundation demonstrates in a new WebMemo , that legal analysis is wrong.
The Defund ACORN Act does not meet the legal definition of a bill of attainder. There is no valid reason why the courts would not defer to the legislative judgment of Congress as to the regulatory purposes of the statute. Congressional concern over an organization that receives taxpayer funds engaging in numerous violations of the law is more than enough justification to meet any test applied by a court trying to determine the reasonableness and rational basis for such legislation. Even the CRS recognizes the tenuousness of its claim of unconstitutionality when it admits that a “court would most likely be able to discern a rational, non-punitive purpose for [the Act]: a desire to prevent federal funds being used for activities that violate federal or state laws.”
The Supreme Court has not overturned congressional legislation as a bill of attainder since 1965, and the Defund ACORN bill does not meet the court’s legal criteria for such a prohibited bill. Organizations such as ACORN have no vested property or contractual right to receive federal contracts or grants and Congress has complete constitutional discretion to decide who shall (or shall not) receive congressional appropriations.
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47 Comments
Here is a copy of the lawsuit Acorn filed. Enjoy
http://mycityblog.net/2009/09/26/acorn-v-s-james-...
ACORN is the "Sacred Calf" of CONgress. Both sides of the aisle, both parties, both Houses have played fast ans loose with ACORN for 40 years. Why would it change now? Because they think WE want it to? CONgress doesn't have the balls to kill off ACORN.
Reid, Frank, Pelosi et al will make lofty statements, give oratorical speeches and thump their collective chests, but at the end of the day, it still ends up as the Golden Rule; ACORN will still be ACORN, and the Elite Intelligensia Ruling Class will still Rule.
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what about congress going after the bonuses of AIG, that is more applicable to the attainder rule than the one on acorn
If their side can whip up enough "popular outrage" against Bush to get Barry elected, we should well be able to get enough to force Congress to de-fund and investigate a criminal organization that advocates breaking the law, does so, and readily instructs others how to do the same.
You know what one of our biggest problems is right now? The Dems are sensing just how badly they will loose in 2010, there are a bunch who know they are going away so they just do not care about ACORN.
Guess what? Do you have a Democrat CongressCritter? Contact them, let them know you will be far more likely to vote for them if they get rid of ACORN. Come on, give them that ray of hope! Heck, they might even decide to follow the polls and stop doing Barry's bidding, anything to improve their chances. Worth a shot!
I just figured CRS was engaging in a little CYA. First they do a proper legal analysis and show there's no basis for a decision concluding that it's a bill of attainder, then they waffle and equivocate so they don't get attacked by ACORN supporting Congressmen, as probably would have happened.
What about CONgress voting themselves a raise, during the Greatest Recession since the Last Greatest Recession?
What about CONgress allowing Fannie & Freddie to continue, unfettered; funding loans to neer-do-wells who could ill afford them?
What about CONgress funding the TARP fiasco?
The only thing the Founding Fathers omitted from the Constitution that could have proven useful, was the provision for a "NO Confidence Vote", comparable to what the Brits and Israelis have in theirs……….
Stop doing Barry's bidding?
I do not thinik so; Barry be the Massah, and CONgress is just shucking and jiving along…………
Doesn't the NLRB's finding ACORN guilty of union busting count as due process and a finding of guilt? Just the facts boys and girls…
I still hate the fact that behind the whole economic melt-down is Fannie and Freddie. True, they were not the only ones, but the fact that their CEO's for the last 20 years (all democrap appointees) have pocketed tens of millions and lobbied congress with the same kind of money (why is a quasi government agency allowed to lobby) not under scrutiny. Raines got 90 million over his brief corrupt tenure there. Yet no one is talking about them and getting that money back. ACORN and the Community Re-investment Act gave us this recession with lots of help from the likes of Franks and Dodd, Schumer, Durbin, etal,,,,,
The Left is governing like we're already a banana republic–absent of the rules of law.
Political sway and propaganda is how to get what they want. This legislation is important to hold.
ACORN and mulitple groups like them have no constitutional right to recieve federal funding in the first place! As a matter of fact more than half of what we fund has no constitutional right to be funded!
Federal funding is not private property unless you count that it was our money in the first place!
For the record: It was the Law Library of Congress that reported this.
I like how the "fired" employees have "lost their employment." Say What?!?! Who wrote that?
And the "fired" employees are sueing for $500k, with ACORN asking for $1MILLION..?
There must be more tape since they are only asking for "a temporary restraining order" from this location.
What I want to see is where it says funding ACORN and other groups is in the Constitution in the first place.
ACORN has a long history of voter fraud which is true a threat to our Constitution and Country. To even consider that defunding ACORN may be unconstitutional is sickening. That group, along with the host of others getting our tax money, need to have the funding they have been leeching from the public stopped immediately.
Parasites like live healthy hosts. Even symbiotes do not like sick partners. Politicians practice self-preservation above all else. Convince them that ACORN and Barry do not help their survival, they will run away like fleas from roadkill.
What made our pouring taxpayer funds into ACORN constitutional in the first place? It's amazing to see how far we've strayed from the clear parameters provided in the Constitution.
To think that money was confiscated from your paycheck and then used to fund an organization that would advocate, among other things, child prostitution, as in “PROSTITUTION: DO IT FOR THE CHILDREN. (An ACORN Public Service Announcement)” at http://firebreathingchristian.wordpress.com/2009/...
It's just too crazy…but all too real in the Constitution-free world of Washington DC.
You are correct; you understand the symbiotic relationship between parasites, and the host organism. Unfortunately, for years WE have been the host and they have weakened US to the point that we can no longer provide the nourishment they require for their very survival.
Could you even imagine the likes of Harry Reid, Barney Franks or Nancy Pelosi having to get a job and survive in Private Industry? I can't. The closest thing they could do to survive in a Capitalist Society, would entail they become Documentary Film makers like Michael Moore…………..
The fact that this is even in question is insane.
It is also proper (if not necessary) to tar & feather the folks who voted not to defund this group: ACORN 7 and the ACORN 75
Some liberal airheads have claimed that defunding ACORN is unconstitutional. Preposterous. What is unconstitutional is the taxpayer perpetually being fleeced to fund these criminal organizations. Not only does ACORN need to be defunded but there needs to be a thorough investigation to see how many democrat politicians were complicit in this crime syndicate.
Oh come on, now you are just confusing the relationship to make a point.
Politicians need a regular diet of votes to survive, make them feel their food supply is threatened and they will act accordingly. Currently some are defending ACORN because they deliver their meals, so convince them they will have nothing but short orders, very short, and nothing else.
As for the other, currently the old hands in Congress are educating young Barry as to who is really in charge. Convince them it does not matter what leash they hold and who they can attack with it, that dog is rabid and will end up biting them.
Oh, and those three are not worried about getting jobs, they have nice government pensions awaiting them and can always hit the speaking circuit. You seem to miss the reason they still hang in there. Relevance. Now they are the elite, the deal makers, the power brokers. They leave office, they loose influence, they are nothing. They will do anything to prevent that, even turn on ACORN and Barry.
And Republicans (I am a conservative too).
Exactly. I raised this point a few days ago when congressman jerry nadler from NY said the defund acorn act is a bill of attainder. The sad part is that Nadler was in favor of the AIG bill taxing bonuses at 80%… which is an actual bill of attainder. Its really pretty pathetic that the people elected to uphold the Constitution know less about it than folks like you and me. Idiots like Nadler need to get voted out. What a joke.
You're exactly right. I have to say, its very encouraging to see how well so many of the people posting here really understand the Constitution.
wow….defunding??? are you sure???? especially in Obama's home town of Chicago???
just check out the recent gift Obama gave the Chicago Housing Authority of $23,000,000.00 from the "ARRA" stimulus money to buy 3,000 video cameras for security of their section 8 housing….now that's what I call a community organizer — payback to those poor folks that helped get him elected. Now which company is supplying these cameras that cost only $8,000 each??? oh I forgot, 1,000 each for the camera/DVR and 7,000 each skimmed off for the installation and kickbacks….whew, I feel much better……what a deal…..can i get a piece of that action???????
Both pathetic and encouraging that the public reads and understands the bills better and quicker than those PAID to do it. The Stimulus bill cost us $1000 per letter in the document. You would think that it would be worth their sorry a$$ time to read it. Most of them are lawyers after all.
Exactly right!
Sending public funds to a known partisan organization like ACORN IS unconstitutional.
Well if Congress can't stop funding ACORN according to CRS for Sex Slave Trade participation then maybe they should vote to cut off CRS funding for being so stupid in interpretation of statutes.
Of course CRS did report back saying Honduras acted within it Constitution in removing Zelaya and State Department was wrong. So maybe they just have some bad apples and acorns.
Honduras: CRS Report: Honduran 'coup' appears legit
We need to clean up Congress until Congress is willing to clean up Washington. Accountability in 2010 and in 2012.
You are right. I looked at the headlines from all major news outlets and they said CRS report, that is what I get for believing them. I should have read the front of report better.
Do you know the difference between CRS and LL reports?
HONDURAS:
CONSTITUTIONAL LAW ISSUES
V. Was the removal of Honduran President Zelaya legal, in accordance with Honduran
constitutional and statutory law?
Available sources indicate that the judicial and legislative branches applied constitutional
and statutory law in the case against President Zelaya in a manner that was judged by the
Honduran authorities from both branches of the government to be in accordance with the
Honduran legal system.
Somebody must educate Dumbraldo "I'm a Lawyer" Rivera on FOX News channel. He seems to think that the defunding is clearly unconstitutional.
Like kadaka says, they won't have to get private sector jobs.
But, I guess if they wanted to, Reid could run a coyote service for illegal aliens, Frank could run a gay brothel funded by Acorn, and Nancy could live off her husband as she does now and still get her daily botox injections.
Exactly so…that WAS a Bill of Atainder, but defunding ACORN most assuredly is not.
Reid could run the coyote service for Nancy. Did you know she employees ilegals at Pelosi Vineyards, Napa Valley, Kalifornia……………..
Geraldo is the antithesis of a constitutional scholar.
Anything that he feels has a racial edge to it is utterly unconstitutional. There lies his problem, not everything is racially motivated. Criminal activity is criminal activity. Just because the criminal activity was illustrated by the actions of minorities does not mean that it was not criminal.
Geraldo should find a new job. MSNBC might be a nice fit. He and Olbermann would make a good team.
Hypothetical, I (government) donate a certain amount of money to a church (ACORN), every single month for many years. One month, I find out that the church has been helping instruct people how to commit felonies. I decide to refrain from donating to that church because of these dealings. Would they have a case against me for a bill of attainder?
I think not.
[...] Defunding ACORN: Necessary And Proper, And Certainly Constitutional [...]
Much much more than half. Considering that the budget is dominated by interest payments, SS, Medicare, Other Entitlements, and Pork – very little actually funds the valid role of the federal government: protection of The Constitution and National Security.
[...] of all of this? Well, ACORN is *snort* investigating itself, both the House and Senate have (as is constitutional) defunded ACORN (although the NY Times still hadn’t reported it by that time) – along [...]
IMPORTANT!!
Don't take your eyes off congress / senate.
It's obvious that POTUS waited until now to confront Iran, delayed decision on Afghanistan, gave controversial speeches at U.N., imigration AMNESTY, racial speech at the CBC, and many other distractions…. to slide toxic policy in under the radar, or at least with less resistance.
HE IS OVERWHELMING THE SYSTEM!
DON'T BE FOOLED!
WE ARE BEING PLAYED!
ATTEND, OR ORGANIZE RALLIES!
Keep contacting representatives, DO NOT BECOME COMPLACENT!
OK
[...] that it is an unconstitutional Bill of Attainder — an argument that has been thoroughly rebutted by former FEC Commissioner Hans von Spakovsky. Nadler had no such reservations when he [...]
[...] ACORN constitute an unconstitutional Bill of Attainder. This tired argument has been thoroughly rebutted, but the Center for Constitutional Rights is going to make it anyway. Republican National Lawyers [...]
[...] ACORN constitute an unconstitutional Bill of Attainder. This tired argument has been thoroughly rebutted, but the Center for Constitutional Rights is going to make it anyway. Republican National Lawyers [...]
[...] ACORN constitute an unconstitutional Bill of Attainder. This tired argument has been thoroughly rebutted, but the Center for Constitutional Rights is going to make it anyway. Republican National Lawyers [...]
In which can I discover much more details on this matter?