Q&A: What are Warren Jeffs' ties to Canada?
Warren Jeffs, leader of a fundamentalist, breakaway faction of the Mormon church, has just been sentenced in a Texas court to life in prison over his sexual relations with girls he had forced to marry him, some as young as 12. But what about Bountiful, the Jeffs-associated polygamist community in British Columbia that has been embroiled in similar allegations of child abuse?
What’s the issue? Why have authorities in British Columbia failed to lay criminal charges or taken children from Bountiful into protection, when Texas has successfully prosecuted not only Warren Jeffs, but eight others at his Yearning for Zion ranch? That community just outside of Eldorado and most of the residents of Bountiful are part of the same Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latterday Saints (FLDS), which, like polygamy itself, has been strongly disavowed by the mainstream Mormon church.
What’s the latest development? Citing evidence collected in the Jeffs investigation, B.C. lawyers offered up a list in court earlier this year of 31 underage “celestial” brides of the sect who had been moved across the Canada-U.S. border to marry mostly middle-aged men. At least five were girls from Bountiful handed over to Jeffs to be his wives, the court was told. Other girls have been brought north to B.C. to marry men there.
What other evidence is there that children are being mistreated in Bountiful? Carolyn Jessop, a former member of the fundamentalist sect, told the B.C. Supreme Court early this year that babies were first slapped until they cried, then held under water until they stopped crying, as a technique to teach obedience. The process is repeated, she said, until the child is so exhausted that she or he does not cry at all.
What have authorities done with regard to the situation in Bountiful? At hearings earlier this year, the B.C. Supreme Court heard evidence and legal argument on whether the ban on marrying more than one person at a time violates freedom of religion and other parts of the Charter of Rights. Lawyers urging that the law be overturned argued that it criminalizes potentially positive relationships between consenting adults. Alleged mistreatment such as that within the FLDS group could be dealt with by other criminal laws or by enacting legislation banning forced marriages, they said. The court has yet to rule.
Is it right that Bountiful has not faced any kind of legal intervention?
Texas Court Cases - News
A federal appeals court today ruled that the individual insurance mandate in President Obama's health care reform plan is unconstitutional, a decision Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott lauded as a step toward ending "Obamacare." The case pitted the
The force said it was planning to travel south and discuss the case with the Texas Rangers, which headed the prosecution of Jeffs. Jeffs, 55, was found guilty of sexually assaulting two girls he had married when one was 12 and the other 14.
The President also asked Texas to reconsider the cases. But Cruz spoke of his anger that the US would in anyway cede it's legal system or sovereignty to the orders of the World Court. The case was taken to the US Supreme Court.
Crawford has provided evidence in court that he was enrolling his daughter in school at 7:50 am that day. Crawford also provided evidence that he was at a Texas bank after 11 am on Jan. 5, 2009. Prosecutors also questioned Yelton about his use of
While the class action case is settled, Encore is still facing legal challenges. In March, Minnesota's attorney general filed a lawsuit against the company. And the attorney general of Texas followed with one of his own in July.
My U.S. Supreme Court tracking ... - the Supreme Court of Texas blog
The construction is now far enough along to be interesting. If your practice extends beyond Texas — or if you’re just a really big appellate geek like me — here’s what you will find:
Slicing the docket by state or circuit of originThis was the first feature I implemented. In part, I wanted to know which Texas cases that I’ve read (or blogged) about are being challenged. This sort of view might also be useful for state and local legal-beat reporters who want to share interesting (and local) cert petitions with their readers.
Petitions are broken out by state or circuit. For example, here are the pending U.S. Supreme Court cases from state courts in Texas . This set includes cases from the Texas Supreme Court (rare), Court of Criminal Appeals (common), or the intermediate courts of appeals (pretty common, after the Texas Supreme Court denies review). A different page shows the federal Fifth Circuit cases now pending in the U.S. Supreme Court .
Not visiting this blog from Texas? Then try this link instead. Or you can browse the list of the active cert petitions here .
Breaking it out by origin is nice. Even nicer, to my mind, is that these are also broken down by stage — has a brief in opposition (BIO) been requested? is the case set for conference? has review been granted?
The badges highlight which local cases have attracted amicus briefs. And you can see which cases have been relisted by the Court from one conference to the next — or which have been sitting a long time without action, signaling that the petition might be a candidate for a future per curiam or GVR (grant vacate and remand) in light of another pending case.
Those conference dates are important. Unlike many other Courts, the U.S. Supreme Court makes very public when a case is being discussed at conference. For counsel, that means you can plan to be waiting anxiously the next business day to see the orders list. (And for the press, it means you can know with great precision the most relevant time to run the story.)
The next conference date is September 26, 2011 — the so-called “Long Conference” after the Supreme Court’s long summer recess.
Individual docket pages and case trackingClicking a case name takes you to a basic docket page, which highlights the case events, the parties, and the attorneys.
The real find here is in the very top right, which (for active cases) is a link to an RSS feed of case events for the case. If you subscribe to this RSS feed in whatever software you prefer (such as Google Reader, your browser, or even your email program), you will get updates about new case events.
Texas Court Cases - Bookshelf
The Educator's Guide to Texas School Law, Seventh Edition
APPENDIX A How to Find and Read a Court Case MOST LIBRARIES HAVE at least one ... The appellate decisions of Texas courts, along with the courts of several ...Notes on Texas reports, a chronological series of annotations of the decisions of the Supreme court and the various civil and criminal appellate courts of texas...
Motion in Arrest of Judgment will be Overruled where defendant for the first time objects because the court records do not show that the indictment was ...Revised civil statutes and laws passed by the 16th, 17th, 18th, 19th & 20th legislature of the state of Texas, To which are added notes of the decisions of the Supreme court and Court of appeals of Texas
(1) The district court has power to issue writs of Injunction in cases in which a court of chancery, under the rules of equity, have power to issue them, ...In the Supreme Court of Texas, Austin term 1892, S.F. Case and J.B. McDaniel, appellants, vs. David W. Logan, et al. : appeal from Haskell County, brief for appellant, J.B. McDaniel
Great American Court Cases: Individual liberties
Texas Legal Citation: 380 US 400 (1965) Respondent State of Texas 's Claim ... appeal to the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals failed, he took his case to the ...Walkthroughs Directory
Texas Judiciary
Official website for Texas Courts Online.
Texas Courts Online | Case Searches
Official website for Texas Courts Online. ... The Office of Court Administration does not have a single portal for case searches, and so the following list of searchable ...
Texas Court Records Online | Texas Background Checks | Search ...
Search Texas Court Records and Access Online State and County Court Case Dockets
Supreme Court of Texas
Includes opinions and orders, case information, court rules, and brief biographies of the serving justices.
Texas Court Records Online Guide
Court Records and Cases in Texas. Court Reference shows where and how to find court cases in Texas. County by county listing of all trial courts in Texas.