Gotta hand it to ACORN for their chutzpah, if for nothing else. Chutzpah aside, however, they may be able to collect on this case, not because they should be able to, but because Maryland really is that screwed up. Maryland Code § 10-402(a) makes it a felony to “Willfully intercept, endeavor to intercept, or procure any other person to intercept or endeavor to intercept, any wire, oral, or electronic communication.” “Intercept,” in turn, is defined in § 10-401(3) to mean “the aural or other acquisition of the contents of any wire, electronic, or oral communication through the use of any electronic, mechanical, or other device.” [Subsection (4) provides some technical exceptions to “any electronic, mechanical, or other device” which may or may not have helped Linda Tripp, but which have no application in a non-telephonic contact such as the ACORN videos. Section 10-410 provides for a private right of action, entitling the aggrieved party to:

(1) Actual damages but not less than liquidated damages computed at the rate of $100 a day for each day of violation or $1,000, whichever is higher;
(2) Punitive damages; and
(3) A reasonable attorney’s fee and other litigation costs reasonably incurred.

Assuming arguendo that ACORN can convince a court that they had a reasonable expectation of privacy (an assumption that is, by the way, probably wrong, but let’s run with it anyway for the moment), this is where the case can get interesting. Does ACORN say “screw the proof, we’ll take liquidated damages of $1,000 per defendant, plus punis?” Maybe, but if they do, presumably the punies will be computed as a function of the actual or liquidated damages, e.g. treble damages. That leaves ACORN two possibilities:

1. Collect $1,000 each from Hannah Giles, James < < and Andrew Brietbart, plus treble damages from each, bringing their grand total to $12,000 plus reasonable attorney fees, which are next to nil since proving that the tape occurred costs nothing.
2. Go for the gold, adn attempt to collect “actual damages” by proving in a court of law how many of your tax dollars they would be able to collect from Washington if only the Baltimore tape hadn’t been shot.

My guess is that ACORN will go for #1, thereby entitling them to a nominal victory, which will cost Giles et al. nothing, and will do nothing to vindicate ACORN in any way, shape or form, but will allow them to tell the true believers that they sued those bastards and won, therefore, ACORN itself must not have done anything wrong. Because I can’t imagine even ACORN is stupid enough to want a court to focus on what actually appeared on the tape, and how much better off ACORN would be today if the truth about ACORN had not come out.

UPDATE: Phelps has located the complaint, in which ACORN and its ex-employees pray for both nominal and supposedly actual damages. My favorite part of the complaint is Count 22, which reads:

As a direct and proximate result of the actions of defendants, Ms. Thompson and Ms. Williams have lost their employment and have suffered extreme emotional distress with attendant physical symptoms and injury to their reputations.

Silly me, somehow I had gotten the idea that the loss of employment was the result of ACORN’s action in firing them. Also amusing is the notion that it was the allegedly illegal taping of their statements, and not the statements themselves, that sullied the reputations of both ACORN and its ex employees, whom Giles, O’Keefe and Breitbart apparently forced to fire.