ACORN is NUTS
Why ACORN filed a lawsuit (complaint here) against Andrew Breitbart and the two conservative filmmakers (James O’ Keefe and Hannah Giles) who video recorded ACORN employees giving advice as to how to classify underage prostitutes on tax forms (among other egregious acts) is beyond me. In an excellent post that everyone should read, Ken at Popehat blows holes through all of ACORN’s legal arguments (here). I agree with his post in its entirety. A few comments:
I don’t see how any reputational harm the two former ACORN employees* have suffered has come from anything other than their own actions, and the video footage is pretty damning in that respect. Furthermore, Ken’s points on ACORN seeking damages on the basis of harm to its own reputation are right on the money. Discussing a precedent case, Food Lion v ABC, a case involving the videotaping and reporting of unsanitary business practices at a Food Lion grocery store and the legal battle that ensued as a result, Ken writes:
Crucially, the court made it clear that Food Lion — which did not sue for defamation, but sought damages for harm to its reputation — could not use state law claims as a ruse to avoid First Amendment restrictions on defamation claims.
As ACORN is a public figure under the law, in order to seek damages to its reputation, the high standard established in the landmark First Amendment case New York Times v Sullivan applies here:
Factual error, content defamatory of official reputation, or both, are insufficient to warrant an award of damages for false statements unless “actual malice” — knowledge that statements are false or in reckless disregard of the truth — is alleged and proved.
From what I’ve observed, I don’t see where any factual errors or content defamatory of official reputation done with “actual malice” has taken place. If I understand Ken correctly, even if the defendants (at least the filmmakers) are found guilty of violating Maryland state law with respect to liverecording conversations (also a questionable proposition), monetary damages will be limited to the nominal amounts described in the statute and nothing more.
Also, The re-publication of material that may have been illegally obtained and is a matter of public interest is a First Amendment non-starter. This tactic taken by ACORN’s attorneys rubs me the wrong way on a personal level, given my very, very, very strong views of the extent that the First Amendment protects the press and its ability to reproduce material that may have been illegally originated (by a third party) that serves a public interest (I’m biased since Justice Black’s concurring opinion in New York Times v United States is one of my personal favorites). I took the same approach a few years ago against people who thought the New York Times violated the Espionage Act by publishing information related to the Bush Administration’s routine violations of the FISA statute “terrorist surveillance program”. The same principles apply.
Ken’s legal analysis aside, which suggests that ACORN will not get the victory it is looking for, I don’t get what ACORN thinks it is getting out of this. Ken writes:
Filing a lawsuit against people who revealed such misconduct will not play well in Congress. Rather, it is likely that the suit will whip up anti-ACORN sentiment and doom any chances that ACORN will regain funding. Would you want federal funds to go to an entity that commits misconduct and then sues people who reveal it? Moreover, the suit will allow the defendants — if they don’t get out on a motion to dismiss — to use the discovery process to rampage through ACORN’s records in an effort to prove that any reputational harm to ACORN was a result of ACORN’s actual bad behavior being revealed. Does ACORN really want to roll the dice and count on getting a judge who won’t let the defendants delve deeply into their practices and into the bases for their reputation?
I don’t understand this either. ACORN has already suffered from this. The IRS and the Census Bureau have severed ties with the organziation. Support for the group in Congress is dwindling and there’s the possibility that it will lose its federal funding. Doubling down when the odds are against you is not the smartest idea.
* I find it very bizarre that they are even listed as plantiffs in the first place given ACORN fired them. If either of the former employees are forced to testify, would this not create a conflict for ACORN’s lawyers ?
My guess is that they see themselves as completely in the target of intense campaign against them by various right wingers so they can’t make the sentiment against them worse. This case may simply be a way of saying to the public that they are pursuing people who have attacked them and they are the victims of illegal actions. The case will eventually be dropped, but by that time the hullabaloo will be forgotten, but it helps their PR now. They may simply be trying to survive with their base, poor people. I believe this sort of legal tactic has been used by entirely up standing, non-outrageous destroyers of democracy in the corporate community.Report
Your title is incorrect. Replace Nuts with Toast and you’d be more on the mark. I hope to god(ess?) that every Democrat in the party has the brains to sever ties with this albatross and let it die. The Republicans are gonna try like hell to make Acorn our to be a wing of the Democratic party. It’s vital they don’t play along.Report
Well when Dem’s are faced with having a group that supports them criticized they usually do dump them. Repub’s fight like hell to protect groups that are aligned with them. so ACORN probably will get booted.
I await the suggestions for who will help poor and inner city people get registered to vote. HMMMMM I wonder why Briebert and various other conservatives don’t seem to be concerned about replacing voter registration drives and such in poor communities. Oh I guess repub’s will start on that after all the ACORN stuff has passed. Maybe after the ACORN stuff has passed Briebert and the repubs will turn their sites on Gail Norton (google if you don’t know what I’m referring too) or excising corruption in big business. After all there are many, many corporations who have various law suits against them that get billions in federal contracts.Report
By chance, did you watch the videos?Report
I’ve read descriptions of the video and I don’t see how the contents of the video change what greginak is saying.
Simply put, these guys aren’t interested in corrupt use of government dollars, or how ACORN might harm the very people its designed to help, instead they are interested in hurting the Democrats and Obama in the polls.Report
Would anything change if, instead of hurting the Democrats and Obama in the polls, they really were interested in corrupt use of government dollars?
At what point would their motivations be good enough for what is in the video to matter?
Presumably at the point where they care so much that they go after Boeing instead of Acorn?Report
Going after Boeing would certainly earn them my respect. Right now this looks like nothing more than a cynical political game, with the result that low to middle income workers will be hurt.Report
Okay Chris so their motives are not pure as the driven snow. I don’t care. They busted Acorn behaving badly on the taxpayer dime. It doesn’t matter why the conservatives did it whether it comes from a passion to fight corruption or a passion to try and hang this on Obama doesn’t matter. If there’s any defense against the videos’ I am open to hearing it but Acorn screwed up big time and they need to be cut loose. They can continue their useful services based on volontary donations.
If Republican motives truely are to hurt the Democrats then the best possible revenge is to not allow them to do it.Report
I’m not interested in revenge. I want ACORN’s mission to still be fulfilled. I want to see other bigger cases of corruption being dealt with rather than being defended by the O’Keefe’s of the world.
I wonder what he thinks of Halliburton for instance.Report
I’d be thrilled to see all the corrupt government associates being hung out to dry. But I do not see the logic in not wanting one currupt entity being punished because another one hasn’t (yet). (Though I’m not clear on if we’ve got any similar smoking guns on Haliburton.)
As for Acorns mission being fulfilled I’m sure a different organization can step up to do the voter outreach. After all there’s fat government funding available to do it. Pay it and they will come. Acorn is far from irreplacable.Report
Frankly dogmatically defending misbehaving groups that happen to support them politically is the -last- habit that I would like Democrats to pick up from Republicans thank you very much. So I hope you’re right on that and the Dem’s do boot Acorn. Transfer government funding to a non-scandal ridden group that helps the poor. Look, I’m no conservative and I’ve rolled my eyes at the Republican canterwauling about Acorn in the past but we’ve got to face facts. They’ve drawn blood and judging by the videos Acorn screwed up and deserves to get dropped. If there’s evidence that the organization hasn’t screwed the pooch royally on this I’m open to being persuaded but simply saying they help the poor vote is not enough. Frankly the poor deserve better!
Now, if we can use the anti-acorn rules to start gouging misbehaving companies and pet Republican entities so much the better. Let the anti-corruption crusaders run amok. I don’t care what the Republicans and conservatives do. One of the luxuries of being in the minority is that you can fling your poo and be all non-constructive and things aren’t going to get much worse. Let them scream and throw tantrums. So long as any legit points they come up with are addressed and the illigetimit ones are ignores then we’ll be fine.Report
I wish there was a way I could just click “like” on this comment.Report
For over two hundred years people voted and did not need money from some broken down organization like acorn. Oh Lord what will we do said the democrat to the republican. OH what will we dow. Shut up and just go vote. The 8 billion that was scheduled was going in some losers banks account. acorn is a satanic organization and only has its hand out for a free ride. SHUT UP.Report
Simply put, these guys aren’t interested in corrupt use of government dollars, or how ACORN might harm the very people its designed to help, instead they are interested in hurting the Democrats and Obama in the polls.
Now ACORN is going after them. Do you think that’s a good idea? I don’t.Report
If they sincerely believe it will help them in their core mission of helping poor folk, then yes.Report
Do you think their legal arguments are valid?Report
I aint a lawyer, but I don’t think they are valid.Report
At least we can agree on that.
I’m no lawyer either. I just play one on the internet.Report
Shut up. Acorn is a corrupt bunch. Exposed and trying like heck to recover from its lies and wrong. Time and Time again the voter fraud kept coming up especially in most of our major cities.Report
The fuss about ACORN is about hurting a group aligned with the poor and dem’s, so it is hard for me to take the conservative whining that seriously. I am fine with going after misuse of gov funds, but if it is only a political tactic then it will never amount to much. In fact using it as a political tactic I think only harms the goal of cleaning up the misuse of gov money. ACORN is small peanuts compared to Gale Norton and various other big business’. So if we have a genuine effort to clean up gov and ACORN is caught that is fine and dandy. When I see briebert and the other who are after ACORN freak out about corporate corruption or gale Norton I will apologize and believe they are serious about ending corruption.Report
Well if you could sneak into Gale Norton’s office and tape record her conspiring to do whatever it is she does and then pop it up on national television that’d help.Report
What’s sad is that it took this Candid Camera campaign against the Keystone Kops of community organizers to get Congress to pass stricter ethics laws for contractors, while DoD contractors overseas are reenacting Girls Gone Wild in their own imagined Panama Cities with impunity.
Not to mention if and when Congress figures that out, they will simply strict the law of any bite.Report
Acorn is a criminal organization that employed the Most Benevolent One as a lawyer (I believe he had a leadership role, but you Obama epigones would be more familiar than I). The real question is what is His Holiness’s connection, is it criminal, what did he know, and of course when did he know it…..see ya’ll at the impeachment!:)Report
Bob,
Should Dubya be in jail for ordering torture, something he admitted on TV?Report
Chris,
I thought the Big O was going to have Cheney and W charged or indicted…whas up with dat? I say go ahead, let’s have a big trial and get the whole history out in the open…and if W and his pals are guilty of any crime, punish them accordingly.
Why hasn’t the O done that?Report
He wants to get some stuff done that he wants to do rather than spending all his time and treasure prosecuting Bush for his shenanigans. It’s not very principled but you can see where he’s coming from I’m sure.Report
Bob ol shoe. My memory on the issue is foggy but if I’m remembering correctly Obama did some case work for Acorn as part of the legal firm he worked with. It’s not like he was part of the organization.
I doubt the conservatives have any more than that on him otherwise it’d be sprayed all over Fox by now.Report
North,
You’re fast becoming my favorite leftist, far outpacing the beloved and learned Russell Arben Fox over at FPR! Keep up the good work and I’ll point the way to the truth, light, and wisdom!Report
I’m honored sir. Just don’t tell Russell I’m overtaking him or things may get ugly between him and I. We leftists get very goo goo over praise and standing and when our status is threatened the slaps come out faster than a gay republican senator in an airline bathroom stall. Sometimes fingernails are even deployed.Report
Hey, their ‘gays’ are kept in a ‘log cabin’, which sounds sorta oppressive while the progressive dems place their ‘gays’ at the head (pardon the pun) of congressional committees.Report
Part of my mention of Gale Norton is that she , a former Secretary in the Fed gov was just indicated I believe in massive scandal to send contracts to three big oil companies. How much are you hearing about that in the press???? I think ACORN is getting a bit more attention. How much attention have the allegations that poor workmanship on projects in Iraq by contractors led to the deaths of American Solders? Quite a bit less then ACORN.
I am fine with whacking ACORN for whatever they do wrong but this whole kafuffle is more about politics and the MSM is more then happy to go barking along after it while not really giving a hoot about corruption in general.Report
This needs more attention.
Collusion between corporations and the federal government is vile and needs to be rooted out. Sunlight is the best disinfectant. News programs even have the perfect cover: “We ran a story on Acorn, we can now run a story on Norton.”
Write a letter. Call your local affiliate.Report
Greginak, on this I have no quibble. Acorn has been busted in the public eye with some malfeasance. A price must be paid for that. I’m willing to believe that Gale Norton is even more scummy and if this is in fact the case I’ll boil the tar for you myself. At the moment the only thing separating her from Acorns’ plight is a properly motivated journalist and an expose.Report
I’m not a lawyer and don’t have the experience to do more than guess here. But I’d hazard that when a party perceives its reputation to have been defamed, the mere filing of a lawsuit can be hoped to be a restorative step in terms of the reparation of its public image. If there is an argument to made in your favor, the failure to make such an argument will almost certainly be seen as an admission that there can be no defense for what has transpired. Filing suit is the most unambiguous way to signal that you are serious about mounting a defense — and it is every individual’s and organization’s right.
Now, I don’t condone frivolous lawsuits. But the court of public opinion (even lawyers offering their opinions therein) is not the court that determines whether a claim is frivolous. Saying a legal argument has been ‘demolished’ has a great deal less meaning when the demolition has occurred only at the hands of a particular commentator giving his opinion in the public square, than when an actual demolition has occurred in a court of law.Report
Yeah, it’s a strategically odd move for ACORN, I mean what would they hope to get out of this? The horse is already out of the barn on this one and I can’t believe they’re so politically tone deaf as to strike back instead of offering penance. Or maybe they’re just so used to flying under the radar they don’t know what competent PR looks like.
Then again this is the same organization that successfully fought to have the minimum wage raised and then sued to be exempted from said law. So…maybe it’s just what they do.
As far as the political optics are concerned, I think Barney Frank’s mostly unnecessary condemnation was the death knell for their reputability, even among the left. When, “the smartest guy in Congress,” criticizes ACORN’s behaviour, it’s hard for would be defenders from the left to make credible arguments that no wrong doing occurred or somehow not worthy of our attention.Report