Fed Court Today Grants Permanent Injunction Enjoining Unconstitutional Defunding of ACORN

[Hissyspit]

Source: Glenn Greenwald at Salon.com / Center For Constitutional Rights

Via Twitter from Glenn Greenwald. New York Federal Court. No link yet. (Prior injunction was preliminary.)

Judge Strikes Down Congressional Ban on Funding ACORN

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.

CCR Legal Director Bill Quigley:

We are pleased with the ruling made by Judge Nina Gershon today. That Congress passed a budget, signed by President Obama, days after federal judge ruled bills of attainder unconstitutional shows just how intent these lawmakers are to target this one organization while violating their right to due process and freedom of association by targeting affiliated and allied organizations, as well. This is a rebuke of the smear tactics of the far right.

Jules Lobel, CCR cooperating attorney who argued the case:

This is why the Constitution contains a prohibition against Congress enacting a bill of attainder – to prevent Congress from acting as judge jury and executioner.

Read more: http://ccrjustice.org/newsroom/press-releases/judge-strikes-down-congressional-ban-funding-acorn

[fascisthunter]

1. hope this Pans Out!

What is an injunction?

An injunction is an order of a court requiring a person, corporation, or government entity to stop doing something and refrain from doing that thing in the future. In relatively rare cases, the court may issue a "mandatory injunction", compelling a person, company, or governmental unit take affirmative action to do something.

Injunctions historically are issued, only "when the remedy at law is inadequate". For example, suppose you own a home surrounded by 100 year old trees and your neighbor claims the trees are on his property and is planning on cutting them down. While the dispute is pending, the court might well issue an injunction preventing the neighbor from cutting down the trees until the matter is heard and completely resolved. Otherwise there could be irreparable harm to the land, money damages could not replace the trees, and the damages you would be entitled to could be speculative.

Another example of when an injunction may be issued is in the case of an ongoing course of conduct that violates your rights. For example, assume you own a Web site and another firm keeps on coming back and copying the material on your Web site in violation of copyright notices, no trespass notices, and contractual provisions. A court will issue an injunction to prevent that conduct from recurring. In fact, courts did exactly that to prevent others from improperly using portions of a site published by the creators of FreeAdvice.

[Kingofalldems]

8. The disruptor crew will not like this one

K and R

[Uncle Joe]

2. Kicked and recommended.

Thanks for the thread, Hissyspit.

[DeSwiss]

3. K&R

- No http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bill_of_attainder#American_usage">Bills of Attainder

[One Voice]

4. From Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR) on Twitter:

Victory! Breaking News:

Judge Strikes Down Congressional Ban on Funding ACORN as Unconstitutional


http://twitter.com/theCCR

[bleever]

5. K and freakin' R. Next up: apology from Congress.

:thumbsup:

[Alcibiades]

6. Golly, you would have thought they would have known

that it was blatantly unconstitutional when they passed it. Oh, wait, they did: they just didn't care.

[msanthrope]

21. They *did* care. That's why it was struck so quickly......

It defies logic that lawyers in the Senate and the House could pass such a badly-written resolution.

It defies logic that our DOJ could have put up such a pro-forma, piss-poor argument.

It defies logic that this got resolved in a matter of months.....not years.

None of this happened by chance.

Now, ACORN will have its funding back in time for the 2010 Census AND in time for the 2010 swings.

And, have you noticed that most of the major ACORN offices have renamed themselves?????

Clever, clever....

[True_Blue]

7. Very good news!

Thanks for posting!

[Jefferson23]

9. OH yea baby!!!!!!!!!! K&R

[Stevepol]

10. This is great. Hope there's somebody ACORN can sue!!

[fryguy]

15. ACORN did sue somebody

Just want to point out that they were the plaintiffs in the case and sued the United States (and various federal agencies) to have the law deemed unconstitutional and, by extension, the funding restored.

[sabrina 1]

25. They have already filed a lawsuit against 'pimp'

James O'Keefe, his 'prostitute' Hannah Giles and Breitbart the rightwing nutcase who posted their phony videos on his website.

ACORN also sued Congress and this is the result of that lawsuit.

They have also had other victories, having been found to have done no wrong by several investigations. So their Giles/O'Keefe/Breitbart suit is getting stronger with all these decisions in their favor.

Also, with the arrest of O'Keefe for more violations of the law, (he violated the laws of two states when he video-taped ACORN workers without their knowledge,) it's clear who was the law-breaker in this scam.

Their videos have also been judged to have been heavily edited to produce the result they wanted, and they have refused so far, to produce the unedited footage. Hopefully that will be required of them in the discovery phase of the lawsuit. If they have not destroyed them.

Also the ACORN workers themselves have a good basis for their own independent lawsuits, especially Juan Carlos Vera, a really decent guy, who was smeared all over TV and it was later proven that he HAD called the police on them, contradicting the lie told by O'Keefe, Giles and Breitbart.

Finally, I think all of them should sue the media, who unlike ordinary bloggers right here on DU and elsewhere who saw from the start that those videos were edited, the MSM just ran them without doing any kind of investigation.

Congress should be ashamed of itself, especially the 126 Democrats who, without any investigation, cast that unconstitutional vote.

I think people should start calling them asking for an apology because they have remained silent about these facts so far.

[The Magistrate]

11. Excellent News, Ma'am!

[earcandle]

12. Cool! Glad some people are paying attention to the rules and laws that govern us!

[Peace Patriot]

13. Great news! They ought to de-fund real criminals like Bush Jr, Darth & Rove!

I wonder what kind of benefits they're getting for slaughtering a hundred thousand innocent people in Iraq in the first weeks of bombing alone, torturing thousands, outing CIA WMD counter-proliferation projects, and damn near destroying our country and our democracy! I mean, actual taxpayer dollars sliding into their blood-filled, traitorous pockets, not what they and their pals STOLE.

De-fund them NOW!

[Hekate]

14. KnR. Let justice be done.

:thumbsup:

[dmr]

16. Good news!

How they arbitrarily, without any investigative truths, did this to ACORN without giving as much as a thought to the likes of Halliburton or Blackwater, where there is evidence, should be criminal. To think there were Democrats who went along with it is shameful.

Finally justice for ACORN.

[howmad1]

24. So you see:

Acorn did not commit a crime. On the other hand Halliburton and Blackwater did indeed commit crimes. Anybody who said crime does not pay is an idiot.

[western mass]

17. Real scandal is that DEMS let this happen in the first place

I blame those enablers more than I blame the repukes, who were just doing what snakes do.

[msanthrope]

22. Wait a minute---I want you to consider something.....

As I posted above,

It defies logic that lawyers in the Senate and House managed to draft such a badly-written resolution.

It defies logic that the DOJ put on such an anemic defense...

It defies logic that this got settled in months, not years---


Seriously....ACORN has its funding back for the Census and the swings. And its renamed and reformed.

I think the language of the continuing resolution was no accident.

[No Elephants]

28. No, it doesn't defy logic.

The bad writing was bc the de-funding was so damned fast. Congress just could not wait to distance itself from the allegation of illegal immigrant underage prostitution with which O'Keefe tried to stick ACORN.

The anemic defense is bc the D of J had no leg to stand on. the bill was unconstitutional, end of story. If the D of J deliberately presented a lousy defense, the lawyers would be violating the ethics of their profession, along with at least one court rule.

The President and all members of Congress take an oath that they will defend and protect the Constitution. Congress should have refused to vote for an unconstitutional bill and Obama, the Constitutional law professor, should have refused to sign one.

But, they were worrying about their reputations and re-election, not the Constitution. They just could not wait to de-fund, lest any of the crap chimp O'keefe was throwing around soil hem.

You are now trying to say that they did that deliberately--deliberately violated their oaths--AND you are trying to present that as a good thing?

Three dimensional chess fantasies are wishful thinking in this instance. And, even if correct, are no improvement over the reality.

[pleah]

18. K&R

[BrklynLiberal]

19. So good to read some GOOD news for a change.

[Hissyspit]

20. kick nt

[Demeter]

23. Fantabulous!

One issue down, 999 to go. And then we get to the hard ones.

[proReality]

26. K&R n/t

[Wizard777]

27. But ACORN Ohio has to surrender it's business license.

This after the republicans tried to steal the election with a man in the middle attack.

:banghead: Until that damned wall falls!