The Texas Supreme Court has handed a stunning, and seemingly final, defeat to law enforcement in the Texas FLDS case:
SAN ANGELO, Texas (CNN) — Texas officials had no right to remove about 460 children from a polygamist sect, the state Supreme Court ruled Thursday.
The Texas Supreme Court agreed with a lower court’s ruling, that Child Protective Services did not present ample evidence that the children were being abused.
The high court ruling could possibly clear the way for the children to be returned to their families. They were removed in April from the Yearning for Zion (YFZ) Ranch, near Eldorado.
“We are not inclined to disturb the court of appeals’ decision,” the ruling said. “On the record before us, removal of the children was not warranted.”
The court’s 6-3 ruling came in the case of 38 mothers who had appealed the removal of their children, but attorneys in the case have said the reasoning behind the court rulings can be applied to the removals of all the children from the Yearning for Zion Ranch raid which began on April 3.
About 460 children were removed, although 20 were later found in court to be adults.
And that, it would seem, is that.
