Families separated by raid on sect are reunited

Texas judge orders release of 430 children who spent two months in state custody

The state had argued that all children at the Yearning for Zion ranch outside the West Texas hamlet of El Dorado were at risk because of the sect's belief in polygamous, underage marriage. The state Supreme Court said that alone was not reason enough to separate the children from their parents.

The sect long ago broke from the mainstream Mormon Church, which banned polygamy in 1890. It has about 10,000 members, mostly along the Utah-Arizona border. Its spiritual leader, Warren Jeffs, is serving five years to life after being convicted last year in Utah of forcing a 13-year-old girl to marry her 19-year-old cousin.

Willie Jessop, a church official who spoke to reporters at the courthouse in San Angelo, Texas, said the judge's ruling was more restrictive than it needed to be.

Carl Tobias, a law professor at the University of Richmond who has followed the case closely, said Walther's order showed that the judge and the state did not consider the custody question settled.

"It's a lot stricter than a lot of people thought it would be," Tobias said. "There had to be some sort of movement away from this mass taking of children, but I don't know that it's a wholesale victory for the FLDS."

Nicholas Riccardi writes for the Los Angeles Times.