Polygamist Compound Removal Cases to Test Texas Civil Justice System
Tom Vick is looking for about 100 lawyers willing to volunteer for what likely is the biggest family law case in Texas history. Their mission will be to represent hundreds of children recently removed by Child Protective Services from a secretive polygamist compound in West Texas. The removal petitions CPS filed on April 7 will test the state’s civil justice system in an unprecedented way because of the sheer volume of litigants, five family lawyers say . . .
The potential for freedom-of-religion claims in the removal cases makes Hiram Sasser, director of litigation for the Plano, Texas-based Liberty Legal Institute, shudder. Sasser’s nonprofit group represents a variety of organizations in religious freedom cases.Sasser fears that some of the parents may try to “use religious freedom as a shield and a reason why the children should remain in their care and custody.”
“And if courts are not careful, they are going to create a lot of bad precedent for other religious freedom cases,” Sasser says. “What we would ask the court is to see through bogus religious claims. Don’t let it be.” . . .
The AP is carrying this report: Sect Mothers Appeal to Texas Governor. It indicates:
In the letter, a copy of which was obtained by The Associated Press, the mothers from the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints also say children are “horrified” by physical examinations they have undergone while in state custody . . .
“You would be appalled,” the letter said. “Many of our children have become sick as a result of the conditions they have been placed in. Some have even had to be taken to the hospital. Our innocent children are continually being questioned on things they know nothing about. The physical examinations were horrifying to the children. The exposure to these conditions is traumatizing them.”