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A [http://judiciary.house.gov/hearings/pdf/CRS-ACORN091222.pdf study] (pdf) performed by the [[Congressional Research Service]] (CRS) of the activities of the community group [[Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now]] (ACORN) found no evidence that the group has engaged in fraudulent voting or violations of federal financing rules. CRS studied the group's activities over the last five years. Two House Representatives ordered the study after conservatives accused ACORN of conducting voter registration fraud in poor neighborhoods and contributing to the country's financial crisis by [http://www.nypost.com/seven/09292008/postopinion/opedcolumnists/os_dangerous_pals_131216.htm "pushing the banking system into a sinkhole of bad loans."] The accusations led some members of Congress to push to cut off the group's federal funding -- and action that a Federal District Court Judge ruled an illegal bill of attainder, a term that refers to Congress aiming punishment at specific individuals or organizations. The CRS report also said that conservative activists , [[James O'Keeefe]] and Hanna Giles, may have broken privacy laws in two states when they posed as a pimp and a prostitute and secretly videotaped an encounter with ACORN representatives, to see what kind of advice ACORN representatives would offer them about evading taxes and hiding their activities. <ref>John Schwartz [http://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/24/us/24acorn.html?scp=1&sq=ACORN Report uncovers no voting fraud by ACORN], ''New York Times'', December 23, 2009</ref>