Government Was Right To Enter YFZ Ranch

I have been rather shocked to hear all of the complaints from both the right and the left about the government "raid" on the Yearning For Zion Ranch in West Texas. The government entered because they had received a complaint alleging child abuse at the ranch, and removed dozens of children and placed them in foster homes while the investigation continues.

The complainers would have us believe the government committed a great injustice by entering the ranch. In trying to build a case against the government's actions, they rely on one or both of the following arguments. First, the government had a faulty search warrant, and second, the government had singled the FLDS Church out and violated their religious freedom. Both arguments are specious.

The argument that the warrant was not legal, rests on the fact that the government had gotten the warrant based on an untrue or "prank" phone call. But the question does not rest on the truth of the phone call, but on whether the government believed it was true or not.

The only thing that would invalidate the warrant is government misconduct. There is no evidence of that. There was a believable call alleging child abuse. It is not misconduct for them to make a preliminary investigation to see if the allegation was true. Child abuse is a serious allegation and cannot be ignored. If they had such a call regarding a family, they would have to investigate it. They could do no less with the call regarding the church.

Once evidence of abuse was found (and it was found), then the government had no choice but to remove the children from the homes of the abusers while a more detailed investigation was begun. I don't think there's anything wrong with the warrant, but even if there was, what would the complainers have the government do? Are they to return the children to an environment where evidence of abuse has been found?

The second argument concerns whether the religious freedom of the FLDS Church has been violated. This argument is simply ridiculous. While all Americans have the right to worship as they wish in any religion they wish, they do not have the right to break the law and cover it up with a claim of religious belief.

No right is absolute. Even freedom of speech is restrained by not allowing libel, slander, or speech that results in immediate public harm (yelling "fire" in a crowded theater). Similarly, freedom of religion cannot be used as a cover for criminal activity. It is not legal to sexually abuse children -- even as a religious tenet of a church.

There has been evidence uncovered of a heinous crime being committed at the YFZ Ranch -- the continuing sexual abuse of children. The government did the right thing by acting to stop it.