I applaud this ruling. It’s obscene for the state to interfere so cavalierly into private family matters. Here are the lead paragraphs from the New York Times report on the ruling:
A Texas state court of appeals ruled Thursday afternoon that the state of Texas had no right to seize more than 400 children from a polygamist ranch in Eldorado, in the western part of the state, because there was not sufficient proof that they were in immediate danger.
The ruling asserted that the state’s child protection agency acted hastily in removing the children from the Yearning for Zion ranch
in April and did not make a reasonable effort “to ascertain if some
measure short of removal and/or separation from parents would have
eliminated the risk” of abuse toward the children of 48 mothers who
filed the suit. The district court was ordered to remove its
restraining order giving the state custody of those children, but it
was not immediately clear how the hundreds of other children, now in
foster care, would be affected.