NEVINS STREET (AP) — ACORN has filed a lawsuit claiming that Congress violated the Constitution when it passed a law cutting off federal funding to the organization.

The Center for Constitutional Rights filed the lawsuit on ACORN’s behalf Thursday in Brooklyn federal court. It claims the law was unconstitutional because it punitively targeted an individual organization. Messages for comment left at the White House and the federal agencies named in the suit were not immediately returned.

ACORN, short for the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now, portrays itself as an advocate for the poor and minorities.

The group’s CEO, Bertha Lewis, says she underestimated the impact of the Congressional action. She says state, local and most private funds have been cut off as well.

In September, employees of the advocacy group ACORN’s Nevins Street office are shown on a hidden-camera video apparently advising a couple posing as a prostitute and her pimp to lie about her profession and launder her earnings.

The video was the latest in a series that had already led to the firing of four ACORN employees in Baltimore and Washington, D.C. It was created by James O’Keefe and Hannah Giles and posted on Big Government.com, where O’Keefe identifies himself as an activist filmmaker.

Reactions to the videos have spread like wildfire around ACORN, which was tied to President Obama during his campaign and has also been accused of voter-registration fraud.

The Senate voted 83-7 to block the Housing and Urban Development Department from giving housing and community grants to ACORN (New York Sen. Karen Gillibrand received criticism for being one of the only senators to vote in favor of ACORN).

Sen. Mike Johanns of Nebraska had requested a full Justice Department investigation into ACORN, saying that they may have aided and abetted tax evasion, prostitution and human trafficking.

The Brooklyn District Attorney’s Office has also announced an investigation into the ACORN office. However, the employees caught on videotape describing how to commit felonies might not themselves be guilty of a felony, said a source in law enforcement.

The two employees featured in the video were suspended while ACORN works to reconstruct the ex-change that was caught on film, said ACORN spokesman Scott Levenson.

Levenson blasted the video shot at the organization’s Brooklyn office, saying the group believes the voices of the couple were dubbed over to alter the conversation and make the interaction appear more objectionable than it may have been.

On the video, O’Keefe and Giles enter the ACORN office, and O’Keefe can be heard explaining “we have a unique life situation� and asking if they qualify for housing help.

In a meeting with an ACORN housing coordinator and office administrator, both women apparently urge the pair to lie about their ill-gotten gains, with the administrator saying “Honesty is not going to get the house. That’s why you’ve probably been denied.�

“Don’t say you’re a prostitute thing or whatever. ... You have to sit back and think and find another name for it,� says the housing coordinator, who later urges Giles to put her cash in a tin and bury it in the backyard.

The undeclared cash could be given to an uninvolved friend who could then give the funds as a gift to O’Keefe, presumably to pay for the house, the housing coordinator tells the couple.

The housing coordinator at one point seems confused about the legality of the situation, asking, “Is prostitution legalized in New York state?�

She later seems to take a concerned interest in Giles, telling her: “You have to start thinking, and when you’re in this business you have to think fast.�

According to Levenson, ACORN sent a letter to Fox News President Roger Ailes, stating that the videotape was deceptive and had been dubbed over, and asking the network to stop showing the videos.

Fox News spokeswoman Dana Klinghoffer said the tapes were vetted editorially before they were aired.

Can ACORN survive?

Exactly how deeply the cuts have hit ACORN remains unclear.

The group has laid off employees, closed offices and “drastically reduced services to low and moderate income people across the United States,� according to the lawsuit.

The court papers don’t mention the money ACORN receives from its members, which has been used to fund its community-organizing efforts. More than 400,000 families are members, according to the group’s Web site.

But the lawsuit says the funding cuts have led to GED classes being canceled midway, foreclosure-prevention programs being stopped in their tracks and home fire-safety assessments being halted. It says local and state governments, as well as most of its private foundation donors, dropped the group’s funding.

Citibank, Chase and Bank of America all cut off mortgage and financing assistance to families at risk for foreclosure who were being served by New York ACORN Housing Company Inc., according to an affidavit. Ismene Speliotis, who heads that group’s operations, said banks have advised the group the cuts are to ensure they are not “affiliated� with ACORN and thus possibly ineligible for federally funded programs.

New York ACORN Housing Company Inc. and ACORN Institute Inc., a New Orleans-based group that collaborates closely with ACORN and has laid off 17 of its 20 employees since September, are also named as plaintiffs.

ACORN has been dogged by allegations of voter-registration fraud and embezzlement. One of its offices was the subject of an embarrassing hidden-camera sting in which ACORN employees were shown advising a couple posing as a prostitute and her pimp to lie about her profession and launder her earnings. The videos sparked a political uproar, with Republicans trying to use the group’s troubles to portray Democrats as corrupt.

The Congressional Research Service warned in a September report that the law taking away ACORN’s funding might not be viewed as regulatory and could be judged punitive and unconstitutional. But some legislators disagreed.

“Cutting off somebody from receiving federal funding does not meet the definition of punishment the way the Supreme Court has laid it out,� Hans von Spakovsky, a senior legal fellow at the conservative Heritage Foundation, said Thursday.

Bill Quigley, legal director of the Center for Constitutional Rights, defended the lawsuit. “Congress is supposed to pass a law of general application to everyone,� he said.

The lawsuit names the U.S. government, the secretary of Housing and Urban Development, the director of the Office of Management and Budget and the secretary of the Treasury Department as defendants. HUD spokesman Jereon Brown said the agency does not comment on ongoing litigation. Messages left at the White House and Treasury were not immediately returned.

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