Indiana

Did Carson Get It Right?

By Abdul Hakim-Shabazz

Indiana’s 7th District Congressman Andre Carson has come under fire for voting against an amendment that would deny funding to ACORN, the controversial community action group.

Congress voted to deny funding to ACORN after an investigation showed ACORN workers giving tax advice to undercover conservative activists posing as a pimp and prostitute.

I am no big fan of ACORN and Carson and I have our philosophical differences, but he may be right on this one, even if for the wrong reason.   A valid argument can be made that when the House voted to deny ACORN funding it was passing what’s called a “bill of attainder.”

A bill of attainder is legislation that specifically targets a group or individual to be punished without a trial.   Such legislation is unconstitutional under Article 1, Sections 9 and 10.  The House bill expressly prohibits any federal funds or contract going to ACORN.  Thus, the potential for unconstitutionality.

Now the flip-side of that argument is that there is no right to federal funding and therefore ACORN is not being punished.

Of course all this could have been avoided had Congress  simply passed  the legislation without mentioning ACORN’s name and this wouldn’t be an issue.  But these are also the same people who essentially tried to do the same thing in the Terry Schiavo case a few years back, so why would I think they would have learned anything since then.

Full post as published by Indiana Barrister on September 21, 2009 (boomark / email).