Zachary Roth December 17, 2009, 6:46 PM

The Justice Department is seeking to reverse a judge’s ruling last week that the law to defund ACORN is unconstitutional.

Federal District Judge Nina Gershon last week put a preliminary injunction on the funding ban, which was pushed by Republicans in Congress in the wake of the hidden camera scandal that embarrassed ACORN. Gershon agreed with a claim by ACORN that the bill was unconstitutional because it singled out a specific entity for punishment. Today, the Justice Department filed papers in federal court arguing for a reversal of that decision, according to a press release from Rep. Darrel Issa (R-CA) trumpeting the news.

Though the move appears to put the Obama administration on the side of the GOP in opposition to ACORN, it’s not quite that simple. When a law passed by Congress and signed by the president is challenged by the courts, it’s hardly unusual for the Justice Department to defend it. Still, at a time when progressives aren’t exactly singing the White House’s praises, the optics aren’t great.

Issa, who has led the GOP charge against ACORN, had this week urged DOJ in a letter (pdf) to weigh in immediately on Judge Gershon’s ruling. In response to the news that it has, he released the following typo-strewn statement:

Given the numerous ongoing investigations being conducted surrounding ACORN’s criminal activities, the federal government will and should vigorously defend what the President signed and Congress overwhelmingly passed—a bipartisan recognition that ACORN is not fit to receive federal funds to perform duties on behalf of the American people. There is no plausible way we can allow a left-wing activist Judge usurp (sic) the authority of the President and Congress in an effort to bypass Constitutional authority so that a criminal organizations (sic) plagued by criminal accusations can have a court-ordered (sic) to entitlement to taxpayer dollars.

ACORN, Darrell Issa, Justice Department