The judge has decided to allow infants to remain with their mothers, but otherwise has not modified the order removing all of the children from their homes, despite no individualized showings of child abuse or neglect.
In the previous thread, some commenters seem to assert that the CPS may take all of the FLDS’s children away because (a) there has been documented abuse of children at other FLDS communities; and/or (b) the “culture” of the FLDS is inherently abusive, as it encourages early marriage and leaves its children inherently isolated by homeschooling them and not exposing them to social events, television, and the like. The latter criterion, at least, would place Amish and some of the more insular ultra-Orthodox Jewish communities in jeopardy.
As one commenter, otherwise sympathetic to CPS, put it, “the judge should focus on current or past crimes and not the culture – this puts religious belief on trial rather than actual behavior.” Relatedly, the focus of CPS, and the judge overseeing the case, should be on individualized evidence of child neglect or abuse. And it remains rather troubling that the CPS apparently had the authority to take 437 kids from their parents after launching an investigation based on an apparently fraudulent complaint of abuse involving a specific, apparently nonexistent, girl.