Austin, USA - Lawyers for mothers in a polygamist sect say the state went to far in removing all children, even the youngest, from their West Texas retreat.
But some child advocates and family-law experts side with a West Texas judge who ruled that the environment at the sect's ranch was unsafe for anyone under 18 because children were groomed to become victims or abusers.
Former state District Judge Scott McCown says leaving some children behind would have meant they could have been whisked out of the state, which would put them at risk of harm and slowed the investigation into alleged abuse.
But Robert Doggett, a lawyer for some of the mothers in the Mormon splinter group, said many of the children were too young to be indoctrinated to believe in "celestial" marriages between under-age girls and older men.