FLDS decision

Eugene Volokh has the Texas Court of Appeals decision finding that Texas officials acted illegally in the raid on the FLDS complex in El Dorado. It looks pretty devastating, and correct. This is really the worst possible outcome. The clumsiness of the state's actions has already made many members of the public sympathize with the FLDS, and see them as a persecuted, if somewhat idiosyncratic group of harmless folk. They are in reality something much more sinister than that, but incidents like this make it harder to police their activities. It happened in the "Short Creek Raid" fifty years ago, and it's happened again here.

Update: Perhaps I should clarify. The court is clearly right that the government acted without sufficient evidence and acted far beyond its authority, thus violating the rights of the FLDS members. The reason this is such a bad outcome is that now state authorities, who are right to be suspicious of the FLDS, have damaged their credibility to such a degree that they will hesitate to act next time, when there might be good evidence and imminent danger to a child. (Not to mention that the FLDS will be less willing to cooperate next time.) By overreacting now, the state has made it all the more difficult to act responsibly the next time.