precedent. I know quite a bit about it because I was tangentially involved in the raid. Here's an exerpt about the raid on what was then the Northeast Kingdom Community Church and is now called The Twelve Tribes:
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"At the same time, news of the sometimes alarming behavior of religious cults frightened residents. For some, the Northeast Kingdom Community Church looked unnervingly like the People's Temple, whose nearly 800 members committed mass suicide in Jonestown, Guyana, in 1978.
By 1984, the chorus of concerns about child abuse, combined with a number of highly publicized complaints filed against church elders, brought the state to a watershed. Then-Gov. Richard Snelling found himself in a fix. After days and days of debate, Snelling approved the raid.
"He was uncomfortable with it," said the late-governor's wife, Barbara Snelling, "but he felt it was extremely important that the state find out if the children were being abused. It is a painful memory, but I think my husband did the right thing."
Armed with a search warrant issued by Judge Joseph J. Wolchik, 140 social workers and state troopers converged on Island Pond early June 22 and took 112 children into custody.
But because the search warrant didn't give the state the subsequent right to detain the children, a second court hearing was necessary, with Judge Frank Mahady presiding. Mahady looked at the state's evidence, including its inability to name individual cases of child abuse, and ruled the raid unconstitutional. The children went home and, eventually, the state's case was dropped."
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You can bet your life that the Appeals Ct in the Texas case poured over this case and over Judge Mahady's decision. I think it was the right decision in 1984 in VT and I think it's the right decision now. And yes, they were abusing the kids in Island Pond.
http://www.nasw.org/users/nbazilchuk/Articles/islandpond.htm