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Or so says the Congressional Research Service in a report prepared for Congress on September 22nd.
I love it! Two entire legislative bodies who are supposed to understand how legislation works, don't seem to grasp the concept in Article 1, Sections 9 & 10 of the Constitution, called, "Bills of Attainder".
What is a Bill of Attainder, you ask? It's a bill that is written to punish a specific individual or group of people. Congress is expressly forbidden from doing so.
Quote:
"While the regulatory purpose of ensuring that federal funds are properly spent is a legitimate one, it is not clear that imposing a permanent government-wide ban on contracting with or providing grants to ACORN fits that purpose, at least when the ban is applied to ACORN and its affiliates jointly and severally. In theory, under the House bill, the behavior of a single employee from a single affiliate could affect not only ACORN but all of its 361 affiliates.
Thus, there may be issues raised by characterizing this legislation as purely regulatory in nature. While the Supreme Court has noted that the courts will generally defer to Congress as to the regulatory purpose of a statute absent clear proof of punitive intent, there appear to be potential issues raised with attempting to find a rational non-punitive regulatory purpose for this legislation.
Congressman Alan Grayson is asking citizens to identify companies who've been charged with fraud against the U.S. government, and add them to a public list. If you want to add one of your own, you can do so here.
I have a feeling this is going to get interesting!
You could hardly have had time since I posted the link to the CRS report to have read it in its entirety. Are you an attorney? What points of law that he raises do you take issue with?
Or so says the Congressional Research Service in a report prepared for Congress on September 22nd.
I love it! Two entire legislative bodies who are supposed to understand how legislation works, don't seem to grasp the concept in Article 1, Sections 9 & 10 of the Constitution, called, "Bills of Attainder".
What is a Bill of Attainder, you ask? It's a bill that is written to punish a specific individual or group of people. Congress is expressly forbidden from doing so.
Congressman Alan Grayson is asking citizens to identify companies who've been charged with fraud against the U.S. government, and add them to a public list. If you want to add one of your own, you can do so here.
I have a feeling this is going to get interesting!
Interesting point because similar actions caused the line item veto to be ruled illegal..
Congress has done the same thing many times over the years. Perfectly constitutional. I don't doubt ACORN will attempt to sue to continue stealing taxpayer money but that would simply show what they are, and they'll lose. Hopefully the investigations into them shut them down too.
Punishing implies fining the group. I don't think starving them of federal funds counts.
If the Government is going to starve or cut off funds to acorn, it's going to have to take a closer look at other agencies who do freelance or contract work for the Government. The OP has a valid point here, cutting funds to acorn may be against Federal Law, unless the Government cuts funds to other agencies who do work for the FEDS.
Yup you can't "defund" Acorn without defunding Halliburton, KBR, Blackwater,
True. I agree.
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