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Liberal Fascists Smacked On Snouts By Court
May 22nd 2008 General, Law, Corruption, Statists, Liberal Fascism

Appeals court rules Texas had no right to seize sect kids | Chron.com - Houston Chronicle

SAN ANGELO — A Texas appeals court ruled today that a San Angelo judge exceeded her discretion when she ordered the state to take custody of children from a polygamist sect.

The order by a panel of the 3rd Court of Appeals in Austin gave State District Judge Barbara Walther 10 days to vacate her order, which applied to more than 460 children.

It wasn’t immediately clear whether the decision means the children will be returned right away to the custody of their parents, followers of a breakaway Mormon sect called the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints.

From the very beginning this whole thing reeked of judicial and state overreach. I’m glad the “black-robed tyrants of the bench” saw fit to agree, and begin to set things aright. Next step: massive lawsuits.

UPDATE: Volokh (natch) has lots more.

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Comments on this post:

  • genes
    May 22nd, 2008 | #1

    At a training for foster care providers in Spring this afternoon, Scott Dixon, a CPS regional director, said some shelters and facilities were already getting calls from parents asking when they could pick up their kids. Dixon advised them not to release any of the children until they get word from the state to do so. Carolyn Jessop, who fled the sect in 2003, was leading the training. She called the decision “a shock.”
    “I am just hoping that enough people will come out and protest it,” said Jessop. She is an ex-wife of Merril Jessop, the assumed leader at the Eldorado compound.

    Sounds like personal bias in the system.

    McCown said there is a very real risk that if the children are returned to their parents they will be moved to another state, Canada or Mexico and be outside the jurisdiction of Texas’ protective custody.

    Might be better for all the children in Texas to be outside the jurisdiction of Texas CPS.

    After interviewing a number of children, they concluded that there were five minors who were or had been pregnant and that the belief system of the community allowed minor females to marry and bear children.

    I thought they said 31? There are several countries and “belief systems” that allow marriage and child-bearing at 13. And there are some others that allow multiple young wives.

  • SteveF
    May 22nd, 2008 | #2

    “Minor” means under 18, or even under 21. There’s nothing shocking about a pregnant 17-year-old, married or not.

    I knew a middle school student who had a 1-y-o and was pregnant with her second child. Not married, but living fairly well on welfare and a free apartment. That is, living on my money. At 14. Tell me she’s better off, and the community is better off, with her getting knocked up by an unidentified father at 12, living on her own*, and mostly bagging school** rather than getting married at 14 or 15 in the FLDS community.

    * She was allegedly living with an adult relative, but in practice it was her apartment and the relative sometimes spent a couple of nights.

    ** There was some loophole in the mandatory schooling laws. IIRC (and this was almost fifteen years ago, so I surely don’t) her baby and pregnancy caused a hardship, so she was home schooling herself, or self-studying with a school-provided tutor, or something similar.

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