Posted on 04/25/2008 8:38:08 PM PDT by Howdy there
The state of Texas made a damning accusation when it rounded up 462 children at a polygamous sect's ranch: The adults are forcing teenage girls into marriage and sex, creating a culture so poisonous that none should be allowed to keep their children.
But the broad sweep - from nursing infants to teenagers - is raising constitutional questions, even in a state where authorities have wide latitude for taking a family's children.
Church members said that not all of them practice polygamy, and some form traditional nuclear families. One sect member whose teenage son is now in foster care testified that she is a divorced single mother.Snip
CPS officials have conceded there is no evidence the youngest children were abused, and about 130 of the children are under 5. Teenage boys were not physically or sexually abused either, according to evidence presented in a custody hearing earlier last week, but more than two dozen teenage boys are also in state custody, now staying at a boys' ranch that might typically house troubled or abandoned teens. Snip
Two teenage girls are pregnant, and although identities and ages have been difficult to nail down, CPS officials say no more than 30 minor girls in state custody have children.
Snip
Constitutional experts say U.S. courts have consistently held that a parent's beliefs alone are not grounds for removal.
Snip
One FLDS member who did testify said she and her husband and their three children form a traditional family and live in a separate house from other sect members. An FLDS expert who testified at the hearing and a former member of the sect say only about half the marriages in the sect are polygamous.
Snip
(Excerpt) Read more at apnews.myway.com ...
Oh well, there is that...
WTG CPS, saving the children that don’t need saving over four hundred at a time...
Ouch!
Maybe there’s a reason why a real valid complainant should be involved in such raids.
Trying to pass an email off as news. LOL
Email??
I got an AP article at the link. To what email are you referring?
This is the same judge who stupidly asked the LDS come in and "supervise" the FLDS while they pray.
Too bad this has already been tried in the press.
Dangerous ground being broken here for sure.
We are to take your children!
Here is where I am coming from.
CPS, follow the rule of law.
FLDS, follow the rule of law.
Judge Walther, follow the rule of law.
You will have to take me first!
Why does a judge think he or she has the authority to tell ANYONE that they can not pray UNLESS they have a supervisor that SHE approves of?
My understanding is that this is now a Civil matter, not a criminal case. Reading between the lines that is why no arrests have been made nor are there likely to be any arrests. In a Civil case there is no presumption of innocence and the defendants have to testify and prove their innocence. Of course in a Civil Case the perps aren’t going to go to jail either.
I think the next question that should be asked is, is home schooling child abuse? There seems to be little difference between that and indoctrination which seems to be the primary charge in this case.
If the state didn't though, we need to be righteously angry at the people who put us in a position of defending our rights to congregate. We'll have to watch the congress close. They may want to do stupid stuff like registering and limiting households.
And in the meantime?
The children?
It depends on what the qualified immunity statues are in Texas.
Both sides are wrong.
No cheers, unfortunately -- and prayers up for *all* the families, in *both* senses of they prayer.
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