Polygamist Win Court Ruling Against Texas

A state appellate court has ruled that child welfare officials had no right to seize more than 400 children living at a polygamist sect's ranch.

Mother from the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints walks past a sheriff deputy on the steps of the Tom Green County courthouse during the fourth day of custody hearings near San Angelo, Texas on Thursday.

(AP Photo/LM Otero)

The Third Court of Appeals in Austin ruled that the grounds for removing the children were "legally and factually insufficient " under Texas law. Child welfare officials removed the children on the grounds that the sect pushed underage girls into marriage and sex and trained boys to be grown-up predators. The appellate court ruled the chaotic hearing held last month did not demonstrate the children were in any immediate danger, the only measure of taking children from their homes without court proceedings. The ruling came as judges were signing off on individual custody plans in San Angelo.

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