ACORN Allowed To Return To Ohio

COLUMBUS, Ohio -- The community organizing group ACORN is not expressly prohibited from returning to Ohio under a settlement reached in a lawsuit that claimed it used fraudulent voter
registration practices.

But a lawyer for a libertarian group that filed the lawsuit on behalf of two voters said Saturday that it would fight in court any attempt by ACORN - the Association of Community Organizations for
Reform Now - to reopen its doors in Ohio for voter registration purposes.

A copy of the confidential settlement obtained by The Associated Press shows that ACORN has agreed to refrain in Ohio from supporting or enabling others "to engage in the type of unlawful
conduct alleged" in the lawsuit.

"I don't think ACORN or any group ACORN supports could possibly conduct a voter registration drive without violating the law because it's inherent in the nature of their practice to submit
unlawful voter registration forms," said Maurice Thompson, an attorney for the 1851 Center for Constitutional Law of the Buckeye Institute for Public Policy Solutions.

ACORN also has agreed to surrender its Ohio business license and has already ceased operations in Ohio, "for reasons unrelated" to the lawsuit, the agreement says.

ACORN has denied that it engaged in wrongdoing and has called the original suit baseless and a form of harassment.

In a statement, ACORN spokesman Kevin Whelan refuted the claim that the group could not re-emerge in Ohio and accused the law center of a "concerted voter suppression campaign."

"The voter suppression lawyers apparently thought that telling one last lie about ACORN would help their effort to keep down the African American vote and prevent organizing in low income
communities - an effort at which we hope they continue to fail," he said.

Whelan said Ohio members of ACORN brought hundreds of thousands of voters to the polls in 2004, 2006, and 2008.

Thompson said the agreement restricts ACORN national, not its individual members, and that the law center would not have entered the agreement if the thought it allowed the group to reopen its
doors in Ohio.

In other states, including New York and California, ACORN chapters have disbanded and resumed operations under new names.

The center alleged in the Ohio lawsuit, filed in 2008, that ACORN's voter registration drives amounted to organized crime because the group turned in a pattern of fraudulent forms.

Thompson said ACORN is prohibited from practices alleged in the lawsuit, but could reopen to provide services that don't include voter registration, such as housing assistance. The group describes
itself as an advocate for low-income and minority home buyers and residents.

Thompson said the intent of his group is not to suppress black or low income voters.

"If they believe they can simply reopen their doors in Ohio, then we will file an action to enforce the agreement, and a judge will determine whose telling the truth, and ... we think we
certainly have the moral high ground when it comes to veracity," Thompson said.

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