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 Congressional Report: ACORN Broke No Laws..Totally Exonerated!

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Artie60438




Posts : 9728

Congressional Report: ACORN Broke No Laws..Totally Exonerated! Empty
PostSubject: Congressional Report: ACORN Broke No Laws..Totally Exonerated!   Congressional Report: ACORN Broke No Laws..Totally Exonerated! Empty12/26/2009, 7:25 am

Here'a a nice little Christmas present for the wingnut teabagging crowd that hasn't gotten a lot of press yet...

Congressional Report: ACORN Broke No Laws
More bad news for right wingers who think ACORN is the very embodiment of evil, as a congressional report totally exonerates them.
Quote :
The controversial community organizing group Acorn has not broken any laws in the last five years, according to a Congressional Research Service report released Tuesday evening.

The report, requested by Representative John Conyers, Democrat of Michigan, said that federal agencies, mainly the Departments of Justice and Housing and Urban Development, have awarded money to the group 48 times since 2005. But, in none of those instances did Acorn violate the terms of their funding, the report said.

Since the 2008 elections, the group, which works primarily to expand voter registration and affordable housing, has become a key Republican target. A series of scandals brought to light by conservative activists led to multiple Congressional hearings and repeated attempts to deny it taxpayer funding.

Acorn has been the subject of scores of investigations—a total of 46 inquiries by federal, state, and local agencies, including the FBI and the Treasury Department, and five by Congress as of October 2009, according to the report.

The report found no evidence that voters attempting to cast ballots at the polls had been improperly registered by Acorn, a chief Republican accusation.
And the hits keep on coming, because the makers of those heavily edited “sting” videos endlessly hyped on Fox News and right wing blogs may be in serious legal trouble.
Quote :
The report also said that a sting-style effort to publicize the group’s allegedly illegal activities, may have broken state laws. Two conservative activists set off a firestorm in September when they posed as a pimp and a prostitute seeking financial advice and secretly videotaped Acorn employees offering advice on how the couple could hide their illicit activities and avoid paying taxes.
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Artie60438




Posts : 9728

Congressional Report: ACORN Broke No Laws..Totally Exonerated! Empty
PostSubject: Re: Congressional Report: ACORN Broke No Laws..Totally Exonerated!   Congressional Report: ACORN Broke No Laws..Totally Exonerated! Empty3/10/2010, 8:50 pm

[url= http://ccrjustice.org/newsroom/press-releases/judge-strikes-down-congressional-ban-funding-acorn]Judge Strikes Down Congressional Ban on Funding ACORN [/url]

Quote :
March 10, 2010, New York, NY – Today, federal judge, for the second time, granted an injunction against Congress’ unconstitutional de-funding of the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now (ACORN) to apply to federal budget provisions signed into law by President Obama in December 2009 and ordered the United State of America and several named agencies to rescind orders cutting off funding to ACORN and its affiliates and allies. A preliminary injunction was won in December 2009 in the Center for Constitutional Rights’ (CCR) case charging Congress with violating the U.S. Constitution’s protections against Bill of Attainders and the First and Fifth Amendments in several recurring resolutions. Today’s opinion extends that protection by ordering a permanent injunction and directing agency heads to disregard the provisions denying funding and to rescind the memos that implemented the Congressional action
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Guest
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Congressional Report: ACORN Broke No Laws..Totally Exonerated! Empty
PostSubject: Re: Congressional Report: ACORN Broke No Laws..Totally Exonerated!   Congressional Report: ACORN Broke No Laws..Totally Exonerated! Empty3/11/2010, 9:29 am

It never ceases to amaze me just how stupid some judges can be. There is no Constitutional basis to support the notion that once Congress passes a funding bill it cannot choose to later cancel part or all of that spending. Further, only the Supreme Court can order Congress to do anything! I wonder if some of these whacko judges have ever even READ the Constitution. They sure don't understand separation of powers.
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Scorpion

Scorpion


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Congressional Report: ACORN Broke No Laws..Totally Exonerated! Empty
PostSubject: Re: Congressional Report: ACORN Broke No Laws..Totally Exonerated!   Congressional Report: ACORN Broke No Laws..Totally Exonerated! Empty3/12/2010, 2:54 am

Mirage wrote:
It never ceases to amaze me just how stupid some judges can be. There is no Constitutional basis to support the notion that once Congress passes a funding bill it cannot choose to later cancel part or all of that spending.

No, that's not correct. Once a bill is passed and signed by the President, Congress cannot "cancel funding" unless they pass another bill and that is also signed by the President. In any case, that's not relevant in this instance.

This case was specifically about Congress passing a "Bill of Attainder" against Acorn. In short, Congress passed a bill that specifically singled out Acorn as an organization that should be punished because it was guilty of wrongdoing, without a trial.

http://www.techlawjournal.com/glossary/legal/attainder.htm

Quote :
The Constitution of the United States, Article I, Section 9, paragraph 3 provides that: "No Bill of Attainder or ex post facto Law will be passed."

"The Bill of Attainder Clause was intended not as a narrow, technical (and therefore soon to be outmoded) prohibition, but rather as an implementation of the separation of powers, a general safeguard against legislative exercise of the judicial function or more simply - trial by legislature." U.S. v. Brown, 381 U.S. 437, 440 (1965).

"These clauses of the Constitution are not of the broad, general nature of the Due Process Clause, but refer to rather precise legal terms which had a meaning under English law at the time the Constitution was adopted. A bill of attainder was a legislative act that singled out one or more persons and imposed punishment on them, without benefit of trial. Such actions were regarded as odious by the framers of the Constitution because it was the traditional role of a court, judging an individual case, to impose punishment." William H. Rehnquist, The Supreme Court, page 166.

"Bills of attainder, ex post facto laws, and laws impairing the obligations of contracts, are contrary to the first principles of the social compact, and to every principle of sound legislation. ... The sober people of America are weary of the fluctuating policy which has directed the public councils. They have seen with regret and indignation that sudden changes and legislative interferences, in cases affecting personal rights, become jobs in the hands of enterprising and influential speculators, and snares to the more-industrious and less-informed part of the community." James Madison, Federalist Number 44, 1788.

Mirage wrote:

Further, only the Supreme Court can order Congress to do anything!

That's just flat out wrong. The Federal Courts most certainly have the power to order injunctive relief to a party who is wronged by Congress. Of course, Congress certainly has the right to appeal to a higher court, or to the Supreme Court in a case that it believes is wrongly decided.

http://www.answers.com/topic/judicial-power-and-jurisdiction

Quote :
The 1875 Judiciary Act established the original federal‐question jurisdiction of the federal courts, limited only by the restriction that the matter in controversy involve a certain amount of money; this statutory jurisdiction remains today in virtually the same form but no longer includes any jurisdictional amount. As a result, plaintiffs with federal constitutional challenges to state laws, or with claims based on federal statutes, have the option of suing in federal courts in the first instance. Today a major portion of the lower federal courts' workload consists of such constitutional and statutory challenges.

Mirage wrote:

I wonder if some of these whacko judges have ever even READ the Constitution. They sure don't understand separation of powers.

Judging from the statements in your post, it appears that you are the one who doesn't seem to fully grasp "the separation of powers."
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Guest
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Congressional Report: ACORN Broke No Laws..Totally Exonerated! Empty
PostSubject: Re: Congressional Report: ACORN Broke No Laws..Totally Exonerated!   Congressional Report: ACORN Broke No Laws..Totally Exonerated! Empty3/12/2010, 7:19 am

It's little wonder this country is so screwed up because so many accept case law and acts of Congress over the intent of the Constitution. I suppose you actually believe Executive Orders can be used to impose the force of law on the average citizen as well.
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Scorpion

Scorpion


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Congressional Report: ACORN Broke No Laws..Totally Exonerated! Empty
PostSubject: Re: Congressional Report: ACORN Broke No Laws..Totally Exonerated!   Congressional Report: ACORN Broke No Laws..Totally Exonerated! Empty3/12/2010, 2:07 pm

Mirage wrote:
It's little wonder this country is so screwed up because so many accept case law and acts of Congress over the intent of the Constitution.l.

So what does this mean, exactly? Are you saying that the Founding Fathers put in the "Bill of Attainder" language by accident?

Or are you saying something else entirely? Please try to be specific. I'm always more than happy to discuss Constitutional questions. I assure you that I have the utmost respect for our Founding Fathers and our Constitution.

If you need to brush up a bit on the Judiciary and the Constitution, I highly recommend taking some time to read some of the the Federalist papers regarding the establishment of the Federal Judiciary. Federalist No. 78, penned by Hamilton, is a good place to start.

http://www.foundingfathers.info/federalistpapers/fed78.htm
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Heretic

Heretic


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Congressional Report: ACORN Broke No Laws..Totally Exonerated! Empty
PostSubject: Re: Congressional Report: ACORN Broke No Laws..Totally Exonerated!   Congressional Report: ACORN Broke No Laws..Totally Exonerated! Empty6/26/2010, 12:32 am

Quote :
ACORN Totally Vindicated of All Wrongdoing -- What Was That 'Scandal' All About?

On Monday, June 14, a preliminary probe by the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO)of ACORN has found no evidence the association or related organizations mishandled the $40 million in federal money they received in recent years.

I think this is the full report here. I haven't read it yet.
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Artie60438




Posts : 9728

Congressional Report: ACORN Broke No Laws..Totally Exonerated! Empty
PostSubject: Re: Congressional Report: ACORN Broke No Laws..Totally Exonerated!   Congressional Report: ACORN Broke No Laws..Totally Exonerated! Empty8/5/2013, 10:39 pm

I know what you're thinking....Why dredge up a topic from 3 years ago about an organization that has been dead for quite a long time now?

ACORN—defunct for 3 years—is still being defunded by House Republicans
Quote :
Did you know that House Republicans really, really, really don't want any money going to the defunct organization known as ACORN?

Although last week's attempt to pass a bill funding the Transportation and Housing & Urban Development departments  (THUD) landed with a, well, an acronym, it would have marked the 13th time the Republican-led House of Representatives passed a bill with language ensuring that no funds go to that organization.

You know ACORN, it's the scary, all-powerful group that tried to register low-income folks to vote and do other kinds of advocacy work for the poor. Republicans believe ACORN is so powerful that, at least according to a PPP survey, 49 percent of them think that ACORN stole the 2012 presidential election. This is down from the 52 percent of Republicans who thought ACORN stole the 2008 presidential election. Oh, did I mention that ACORN ceased to exist in 2010? I guess that fact accounts for the three percent drop from 2008 to 2012.

But back to last week's House vote. What are Democrats saying about it? Well, as a historian, this reply gets my vote for most humorous remark of the year by a Congressional staffer (there may not be stiff competition, I realize):

Quote :
   "Word is the majority will also prohibit foreign aid to the Ottoman Empire this year."

This ridiculous Republican revisiting of ACORN's non-existing funding reminds me of that classic Saturday Night Live "Weekend Update" newscast where anchor Chevy Chase announces that Generalissimo Francisco Franco is still dead, so I've embedded it for your viewing pleasure.
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