Family Law: May 2008 Archives
Though the two highest Texas Appellate Courts have held that the state had no justification for removing the 468 children from their parents at the Yearning for Zion Ranch, and the trial court lacked authority and reason to issue such an order, the children remain in foster care spread across the state. At a hearing on Friday, trial judge Barbara Walther refused to order the children released and actually walked off the bench in the middle of the hearing when lawyers for the children tried to argue she had no authority to put conditions on the rescission of her order.
is the Opinion of the Supreme Court of Texas holding that the state illegally removed 468 children from their homes on a ranch run by the Yearning for
Alan Milstein
Here is the Opinion of the Texas Court of Appeals holding that the Department of Family Services failed to meet its burden in showing that the 468 children seized from their mothers were in imminent danger of suffering abuse. While the media reports of the living conditions at the compound seemed to suggest a clear case of the state acting appropriately, the actual evidence the state introduced to justify its extraordinary action was pencil thin at best. This included the following:
a) only five of the female children seized were pregnant or had delivered a child and there was no evidence introduced that any pregnancy was the result of a forced marriage or coupling;
b) there was no evidence of abuse of any of the male children seized;
c) there was no evidence that any of the infant, preschool, or preteen girls had suffered or were in imminent danger of suffering abuse; and
d) the much publicized initial phone call was apparently a hoax.
The numerous
Alan Milstein
