The Texas Hold'em Decision

More on the FLDS Children decision, with many comments here, at Talkleft.

Also, here is Sen. Cornyn of Texas regarding children, and how to protect them, from an op ed in Southeast Texas Record. Two points, Senator, with respect. One. The following is old fashioned fear mongering: "Local, state and federal government must be vigilant as technology makes some crimes easier;" and, in "Texas has been at the forefront in modern efforts to protect children," considering the first subject of this post, the phrase "screwing up efforts to protect children" should be in your statement somewhere.

The only thing about which the Senator and I could agree is the following, "there is no substitute for loving, caring and alert family members. I wonder how the family members of the FLDS children, wrongly deprived of their parental rights by force, feel about this? On how many other occasions has Texas gotten it wrong, but parents were too overwhelmed, poor, or uneducated to be able to assert their rights in court?

Increase the budget for the state in this area, and watch in horror the numbers of families wrongly torn apart increase in proportion.

More From Grits on the Texas Mormon Children

If you have been Walthered, I would like to know about it. Please contact me through comments on this site or email me.

If you want to know more about what this new verb, Walthered, means (and how it originated), link to Grits, Scott Henson's great Texas blog. The comments on his post are juicy, ripe for action, and will give you a spicy taste of attitudes prevailing in Texas-style justice and politics.

Grits's searing coverage, updated with every new develoment, is the best I've seen.

Good question: why did the lefties initially support the raid and "conservatives" not do so. I was aghast from the beginning, and consider myself a convert to the left after having flirted with the right in my youth. A recent series of Presidential blunders have turned me away from the right wing party in this country forevermore.

Independently of my political pieties, I was aghast because I know first hand what it is like to be separated both from your parents, and from your children. I've seen it from both ends, unfortunately. I'm not necessarily in favor of bigamy or underage marriage. I just had a hunch Texas CPS had bitten off a little more than could be chewed, comfortably. Now, we'll get to see how national attention could possibly have an effect upon this particular area of what they call family law in this state.

You gotta love Scott's new slogan for CPS: No Child Left With Mom (!!!)

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Grits on FLDS Children Takings

Prison Conditions and Other Petitions to Watch

You won't appreciate the facts alleged in this Bivens (Sec. 1983) case (on the list of petitions to watch at SCOTUSBLOG) unless you have seen the insides of our prisons.

At this link is the tail end of at least one more interesting action making it onto the list, involving removal of children from families and parental rights, that has been ongoing for ten years in Illinois (Dupuy, et al. v. McEwen).