Texas' FLDS Case Upended

Proving that general allegations do not a child abuse case make, the Texas Third District Court of Appeals found in a mandamus proceeding that CPS failed to carry the burden under the Texas Family Code in its removal action concerning the children of members of the Yearning for Zion ranch out in West Texas. Specifically, the Court of Appeals found that CPS failed to demonstrate there was any danger of physical harm to any of the children, that a need for protection justified removal, or that CPS took any "reasonable steps" to avoid removal. In other words, it appears the removal action was based largely on a generalized fear that the children were in danger of abuse as a result of the belief system of their parents and under Texas law, you can't take children away simply because of the religious beliefs of the parents. Basically at this point CPS must either demonstrate in a new round of hearings the factors above as required by state law, or the kids go back to their parents. Since it's hard to imagine that CPS will be able to demonstrate any of these requirements in the overwhelming majority of cases (if any) it's very likely that most, if not all, of the children taken will be back with their parents shortly. As they should be.

As always, Scott Henson has more on the FLDS removal case here.

FLDS Way of Life a "Danger"

Or so the State of Texas appears to be prepared to argue (via the Local Crank):

In the immediate sense, the raid may have happened because of a hoax. Telephone calls reporting abuse at the ranch have been linked to a woman in Colorado with an alleged history of false abuse complaints.

But both Texas and the polygamists had been courting a confrontation. Under "prophet" Warren Jeffs -- now in jail in Arizona -- the fundamentalist sect seemed to be ordering more underage marriages. And a West Texas representative sponsored a bill in 2005 that set new laws seemingly targeted at polygamists.

Here in Eldorado, the small town closest to the compound, residents still say they're glad the raid happened.

"It's not legal, and it's wrong, the way they were living," said Rosa Martinez, behind the counter at her Rosita's Casita restaurant.

But legal experts say the case could easily become a quagmire. They say Texas has an unusual burden: It has to prove not spankings or sexual abuse, but the dangers of an entire belief system.

"Can they say with a straight face that's in the best interest of these children, to be taken away from their parents?" asked Ken Driggs, a public defender in Georgia who has done extensive research on polygamy and the law. "Does government want to get in there and say, 'This is a good religion,' or 'This is not a good religion?' "

The answer to that question is obviously no, but of course that won't stop authorities in our great state. The question for me of course is whether the raid was prompted in part by religious prejudice, or whether authorities will settle for religion as the rationale for the raid when their other justifications fall apart. If they find little to no evidence of sexual, emotional or physical abuse, what else can they put on trial but the FLDS way of life? It's either that or back down, and we don't back down in our great state.

This is where conservatism in Texas runs runs into a condundrum. Religious conservatives would love nothing more than to shut the FLDS down and run them out of the state, but as the story gains national awareness it will become evident that FLDS members adhere to a lifestyle that, but for the polygamy, religious conservatives claim to value (Scott Henson explains in more detail.)And it will become evident even in most dimly-lit and prejudice wracked religious conservative brain that putting somebody on trial for their deeply-religious and Christian-like lifestyle is a little too much like putting fundamentalist Christians on trial for their parental decisions (like home-schooling.)

I don't agree with the FLDS way of life, but neither do I agree with the decision of fundamentalist Christians to teach their kids at home and indoctrinate with anti-science dogma disguised as religious freedom. But above all I think people should be allowed to live and raise their children as they see fit so long as they don't harm them physically or psychologically, no matter how unusual or strange their customs may seem to the rest of us. If Texas really wants to put the FLDS way of life on trial, then our whole state will lose.