FLDS and the Fourth Amendment

Scott at Grits for Breakfast called criminal blawggers out for not taking a stronger stand either way on the recent events in Eldorado, Texas.

The reason I haven't posted on this, Scott, is that I'm really torn. The culture of the Mormon polygamists is so foreign to me. I've seen the 20/20 episodes, the Dateline exposes, all detailing the harrowing tales of how women are trapped at any early age, how they are physically assaulted, sexually abused, emotionally trapped, and generally imprisoned in these communities.

But, as I have slowly realized, the only response to this laundry list of terrible things that I may "know" or think about FLDS communities that really matters is: so what? The Fourth Amendment says that that the suspicion must be particularized to individuals in criminal cases, and in this case the State of Texas has nothing. The subject of the alleged call for distress has yet to be located, and there's very strong evidence that the call came from a woman in Colorado, not a 16 year old girl. Further, the man who was supposed to have sexually assaulted this girl was not even in Texas at the time she said he was, a fact that was imminently verifiable by Texas authorities (he has been in Colorado, dutifully reporting to his probation officer). Moreover, the detention of 400+ children and their forced separation from their mothers and fathers has uncovered no evidence of any sexual abuse.

It doesn't matter legally if the searches and seizures did uncover anything, because the validity of the warrant to search YFZ Ranch is based on what's referred to by lawyers as "the four corners of the warrant". Basically, it doesn't matter what the search uncovers to corroborate the suspicions of law enforcement or whatever other information was available to law enforcement; all that matters is was there probable cause to believe a crime had been or was being committed based on the information contained in information used to obtain the warrant from the magistrate.

As much as I might abhor the polygamist lifestyle, as much as I might have an unsubstantiated hunch that something's wrong there or that a crime has been committed, it don't mean jack. The true measure of a democracy is how the government treats politically and socially unpopular groups. Texas, we have failed in this regard.