The American Spectator

It may sound like an observation worthy of Captain Obvious, but activist groups do not have a constitutional right to taxpayer funding.

Amazingly, in ACORN et al. v. U.S. a federal judge in Brooklyn named Nina Gershon, not to be confused with Gina Gershon of Showgirls fame, actually ruled that ACORN had constitutionally protected rights in the congressional appropriations process and that those so-called rights had somehow been violated by an vewy vewy eeeevil vast right-wing conspiracy. Supposedly the Bill of Attainder Clause had been infringed and ACORN had been singled out for punishment without trail. This assumes, of course, that ceasing to fund an odious group like ACORN amounts to punishment.

(The sordid saga, including the Left’s vile defense of the urban terrorist group, is discussed in my new book, Subversion Inc.: How Obama’s ACORN Red Shirts are Still Terrorizing and Ripping Off American Taxpayers.)

The Second Circuit slapped Judge Gershon down hard and a few days ago the Supreme Court kept on slapping. It was a beautiful thing to see common sense and the Constitution upheld by the highest court of the land. It happens so rarely nowadays.

In a breathtaking conflict of interest, the novel, nonsensical bill of attainder argument was proposed by ACORN’s de facto legal counsel Rep. Jerrold Nadler (D-N.Y.) in 2009.

At the time the ethically challenged lawmaker from the Soviet Socialist Republic of the Upper West Side happened to chair an oversight panel with jurisdiction over ACORN.

Nadler, who has never been accused of lacking chutzpah, has given the ACORN-affiliated Working Families Party of New York at least $66,600 since 2002. Not surprisingly, the far-left pro-labor party routinely endorses Nadler.

Even after then-House Judiciary Committee Chairman John Conyers (D-Mich.) publicly pleaded with Nadler to investigate ACORN over election irregularities, he steadfastly refused, claiming he would act only if hard evidence emerged of ACORN’s wrongdoings. In reality, no proof, however convincing, could ever satisfy the Manhattan congressman.

Nadler no doubt is blissfully unaware that in my book Subversion Inc. I report that at least 54 people associated with ACORN have been convicted of voter fraud. Oops - scratch that - the real total is 55. Another ACORN voter-registration canvasser was convicted of election fraud in Pittsburgh after I filed my manuscript with the publisher. The total number is bound to go even higher because many of the accused ACORN workers are on the lam.

I have an op-ed about the case in today’s Washington Times.

(Buy the book at Amazon. Visit the Subversion Inc. Facebook page. Follow me on Twitter.)