U.S. NEWSAUGUST 13, 2010, 5:12 P.M. ET
Congress Had Right to Bar Acorn Funding, Appeals Court Rules
By CHAD BRAY
Congress acted within its authority when it blocked federal funding last year for community activist group Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now, or Acorn, a federal appeals court has ruled.
On Friday, the U.S. Second Circuit Court of Appeals overturned a federal judge's ruling that cutting off Acorn's funding was unconstitutional. The judge had found that Congress had improperly passed a law that determines guilt and inflicts punishment without Acorn having the protections of a trial.
Lawmakers blocked funding to Acorn in a stop-gap spending bill last October and used identical language to specifically exclude funding to Acorn in the fiscal 2010 appropriations bill.
The group, which helped low-income people register to vote and provided counseling to low-income homeowners through an offshoot organization, announced it was disbanding in March.
"Although the appropriations laws may have the effect of alienating ACORN and its affiliates from their supporters, Congress must have the authority to suspend federal funds to an organization that has admitted to significant mismanagement," U.S. Circuit Judge Roger J. Miner wrote.
The three-judge panel remanded the case back to a federal judge in Brooklyn for more proceedings—namely to determine whether Congress had violated Acorn's First Amendment rights or right to due process.
William Quigley, legal director for the Center for Constitutional Rights, which argued on behalf of Acorn, said they would ask the full circuit to hear the case.
"We have high hopes that this is not the final word on this issue," Mr. Quigley said.
Lawmakers barred funding to Acorn last year amid questions about of its use of federal funds and secretly recorded videos in which Acorn employees allegedly offered advice on how to set up brothels and evade taxes to filmmakers posing as a pimp and a prostitute.
