by Domestic Avalanche

Created on: July 02, 2008

Assault on the First Amendment rights of Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints in Texas

Here is another blatant assault on the first amendment. The court has thrown out the State's abduction of (yes, abduction) of over 460 children from Yearning for Zion, the compound of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (FLDS) community.

I am not writing this to support any evil doers. If there were any under-aged or forceful marriages, any statutory rapes or other abuse on minors, the culprits should be tried and punished. If any of the adults in the community have committed such crimes or knowingly aided them, they all should be prosecuted to the maximum extend as allowed by law. The right of religious freedom won't protect them and first amendment does not excuse such crimes.

However, the lawyers of Child Protective Services have finally admitted that 15 of the 31 "child" mothers placed in foster care were actually adults. One is 27. A 14-year-old removed as a child mother apparently has no children. The state had raided the ranch after a 16-year-old girl called an abuse hot line saying she had been beaten and raped by her 50-year-old husband, but that girl has not been found at the ranch during the raid. Police traced the calls to 33-year-old Colorado Springs woman named Rozita Swinton. Swinton had earlier been arrested for making a false report, and accused of posing as "Jennifer," 16, who called 911 to report that her father had locked her in a basement for days. She is also accused of posing as other aliases.

That being said, in this case the Texas government officials jumped into this mess with the best of intentions. They forgot or ignored the legal procedure while earnestly trying to save another child from molestation. This lead to flagrant errors in evidence and identities of the parties involved. Even now the authorities cannot clearly find the ages, names and relationships of the 'children' taken away from the ranch. DNA tests of hundreds of people are taking weeks to process when many children are away from their parents despite of the lack of proof of any wrong doing.

The court ruling says in its third paragraph that "Removing children from their homes and parents on an emergency basis before fully litigating the issue of whether the parents should continue to have custody of the children is an extreme measure. It is, unfortunately, sometimes necessary for the protection of the children involved. However, it is a

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