A Texas appeals court said Thursday the state had no right to take more than 400 children from a polygamist sect’s ranch, a ruling that could unravel one of the biggest child-custody cases in U.S. history.
The Third Court of Appeals in Austin ruled that the state offered “legally and factually insufficient” grounds for the “extreme” measure of removing all children from the ranch, from babies to teenagers.
The state never provided evidence the children were in immediate danger, the only grounds in Texas law for taking children from their parents without court approval, the appeals court said. The state never provided evidence that teenage girls were being sexually abused and never alleged any sexual or physical abuse against the other children, the court said.
It was not immediately clear whether the children scattered across foster facilities statewide might be reunited with parents.
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The background
Every child at the Yearning For Zion Ranch in Eldorado was taken into custody more than six weeks ago, after Child Protective Services officials said members of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints pushed girls into marriage and sex and groomed boys to become adult perpetrators.
