Nina Gershon, another slippery ACORN ally

Yesterday, Brooklyn federal judge Nina Gershon delivered a ruling that must have ACORN members dancing in the streets.

In a written ruling Wednesday, U.S. District Judge Nina Gershon made permanent her conclusion last year that the cutoff of funding was unconstitutional. She ordered all federal agencies to put the word out about it.

The Brooklyn judge said ACORN was punished by Congress without the enactment of administrative processes to decide if money had been handled inappropriately. She said the harm to ACORN's reputation continues because the government never rescinded its advice to withhold funding after it was distributed to "hundreds, if not thousands, of recipients."

Despite the fact that Congress has the power of the purse under the Constitution, Gershon ruled that ACORN was entitled to taxpayer money. The corrupt community organizer group has received more than $53 million in federal funds since 1994.

Gershon, who was appointed by Bill Clinton, is leftward even of Barack Obama on the ACORN issue. After Gershon's initial ruling in December, the Obama Administration stepped in and asked her to reconsider, which she refused in a statement yesterday. Gershon has a history of meddling with taxpayer money in this way. In 1999, she ruled that New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani couldn't cut funding to the Brooklyn Museum of Art. The museum had introduced an exhibit displaying a picture of the Virgin Mary covered with pictures of vaginas and smeared with elephant dung.

Gershon was born in Chicago and later moved to New York City to practice law, rising to the position of federal judge in Brooklyn. ACORN was encouraged to sue the government by Rep. Jerrold Nadler, a Democrat from Brooklyn. Nadler is an enthusiastic ACORN supporter and has run with the blessing of the Working Families Party, ACORN's kissing cousin.

Good news: ACORN cleared in New York by ACORN-supported district attorney

Well that was fast. After only four months, Brooklyn's DA has declared ACORN to be squeaky clean.

"Brooklyn prosecutors on Monday cleared ACORN of criminal wrongdoing after a four-month probe that began when undercover conservative activists filmed workers giving what appeared to be illegal advice on how to hide money.

While the video by James O'Keefe and Hannah Giles seemed to show three ACORN workers advising a prostitute how to hide ill-gotten gains, the unedited version was not as clear, according to a law enforcement source.

'They edited the tape to meet their agenda,' said the source."

You know Brooklyn's crack DA really did a bang-up job when his office is claiming O'Keefe and Giles edited their tapes. It took us about fifteen seconds to find the full audio and transcript on Andrew Breitbart's web site BigGovernment.com. Apparently Brooklyn's finest haven't figured out how to plug in a modem yet.

There's definitely something fishy going on here. Brooklyn's DA Charles J. Hynes was endorsed for reelection by the Working Families Party, ACORN's kissing cousin in the Big Apple. The WFP wields substantial power and isn't afraid to lean on politicians for favors, as we've seen repeatedly with Kirsten Gillibrand and Patrick Gaspard. Hynes is a Democrat who believes, among other things, that drug users should be rehabilitated rather than imprisoned. Just the kind of man that the WFP is looking for.

This is the second time ACORN has gotten off the hook thanks to a sham investigation. The last one was courtesy of ACORN ally and former Massachusetts attorney general Scott Harshbarger.