http://www.onenewsnow.com/Legal/Default.aspx?id=770726A legal expert and former member of the Federal Election Commission says the community organizing group ACORN has no basis for its lawsuit against the federal government.
ACORN has filed a lawsuit in Brooklyn federal court, alleging that Congress violated the Constitution when it passed legislation banning federal funding for the liberal group.
The suit claims that defunding ACORN was an unconstitutional "bill of attainder," a legislative act that punishes a person or group without a judicial trial.
Hans von SpakovskyHans von Spakovsky, a visiting legal scholar at the Heritage Foundation, says the bill of attainder clause does not apply to Congress' decision cut funding to ACORN. He says the group's loss of government funding could threaten its very existence.
"ACORN has had problems in the past. As you know, they've had dozens of employees convicted of voter registration fraud, and in the past, their private donors have continued to give them money," Spakovsky explains. "I don't know whether that's going to continue given all their current problems, but it's clear the cutoff of federal money is severely hurting the organization."
Von Spakovsky says ACORN "got caught" not because of its past history of financial mismanagement and embezzlement, but because two young conservative filmmakers had the courage to go undercover and show that ACORN employees were willing to engage in tax fraud and mortgage fraud, as well as aid and abet human trafficking.