This just in: Texas Supreme Court has ruled that the Texas Department of Family and Protective Services had no right to take the children from the mothers in the Yearning for Zion Ranch in Eldorado. In its ruling today, the justices wrote that the "removal of the children was not warranted" and concurs with the Third Court of Appeals' ruling from last week that the children must be returned.
Justice Harriet O'Neill dissented, in part, believing that the "record demonstrates that there was evidence to support the trial court’s order as it relates to pubescent female children" and their removal from the compound. Her opinion can be read here. Two other justices agreed with her on that point, but that was not enough to garner a majority of the court's members. --Robert Wilonsky