Texas Court: Return Kids to Polygamy Sect

A Texas appeals court found today that authorities, acting on "no evidence," and supported only by a "general allegation" of impropriety, should not have removed more than 460 children from a polygamist compound, the Dallas Morning News reports. The panel also said a local court "abused its discretion" in authorizing an April 3 raid and ordered the children returned.

“Even if one views the FLDS belief system as creating a danger of sexual abuse by grooming boys to be perpetrators of sexual abuse and raising girls to be victims of sexual abuse,” the court said, “… there is no evidence that this danger is ‘immediate’ or ‘urgent.' " Said a supporter: “It is a great day for families in the state of Texas." (More polygamists stories.)