Appeals Court Rules Against ACORN

In a story that not surprisingly got buried by the mainstream media, an appeals court has ruled that Congress can withhold federal funds from a crime-infested community organization famous for voter registration fraud and embezzlement.

The crucial decision, recently issued by the 2nd Circuit Court of Appeals in Manhattan, allows federal lawmakers to stop giving the notoriously corrupt leftist group (Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now or ACORN) taxpayer money to fuel its criminal enterprise. ACORN, which has received tens of millions of taxpayer dollars over the years, sued the U.S. government in November after Congress slashed its public funding amid mounting corruption scandals.

In its lawsuit ACORN claimed that banning it from receiving federal aid violates a provision of the U.S. Constitution (known as the Bill of Attainder) because it unfairly singles the group out for punishment. Furthermore, ACORN’s complaint said, a congressional resolution cutting its funding constitutes legislation that illegally targets one group. Earlier this year a district court judge in Brooklyn sided with ACORN, ruling that Congress had indeed violated the group’s rights by punishing it without a trial.

In reversing that decision, the appellate court said that Congress must have the authority to suspend federal funds to an organization that has admitted to “significant mismanagement.” The three-judge panel said it doubted that “the direct consequences of the appropriations laws temporarily precluding ACORN from federal funds were so disproportionately severe or so inappropriate as to constitute punishment.”

With offices across the nation, Chicago-based ACORN has a documented history of embezzlement, fraud and playing a major role in the housing market meltdown. The crooked community organization with close ties to President Obama has been criminally prosecuted for voter registration fraud in various elections and was recently exposed in a now world-famous video for advising prostitutes and pimps on how to skirt housing and taxing laws.

For nearly a year Judicial Watch has been on the front lines investigating ACORN’s unscrupulous antics through the use of public records laws and other investigative tools. Click here to see Judicial Watch’s work—including litigation and public records disclosures—involving ACORN, which blames right-wing attacks for its demise.