Facts for this, but not the legal conclusions, come from an article published in the Baltimore Sun on 12 January, 2007. The ACLU has sued the Maryland Transit Authority over rules the MTA established to require anyone seeking to solicit citizens on MTA property to obtain a permit first. The ACLU claims this is unduly restrictive of Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now, also known as ACORN.

That name should ring a bell. ACORN is a liberal Democrat organization whose representatives are under investigation for criminal activity in at least six states for violating election laws in how they gather registrations, and for turning in large numbers of fraudulent registrations. In one particularly notorious case, the regional supervisor for ACORN paid the signature gatherer with heroin, to obtain large numbers of false registrations.

In filing the suit, the ACLU did not explain how it was discriminatory for the MTA to ask all solicitors on MTA property to register in the same way. The ACLU simply said that “ACORN was engaging in First Amendment activities,” as if this exempted ACORN from obeying local or state laws.