Walther splits the FLDS custody cases. What does that say about the warrants?

It would seeem now all the cases are individual. Individual by mother, individual by child. They are grouped by mother. This is a concession that the "one household" theory is a bust. The San Angelo Standard-Times;

"(Judge Barbara) Walther split Case No. 2902 - which included more than 300 children - into 110 cases grouped by mother, and Case 2903, which included more than 30 children, into nine cases, also grouped by mother. They join 125 cases filed separately by the state's Child Protective Services agency, which removed nearly 440 children from the sect's Schleicher County compound in early April."

It's on a Friday afternoon, which means they don't want to talk about it. You dump something you want to hide on a Friday afternoon, or you dump a rumor you want to have maximum effect on a Friday afternoon. You also rule in an unfavorable way on a Friday afternoon so that it's two or three days before it's effect can be appealed.

I think this means the first warrant is swept aside completely. This also has implications for the second warrant, since the Texas Rangers were at the YFZ Ranch on the basis of the first warrant and searched the whole ranch as a single household. These are now all individual cases.

UPDATED THOUGHTS: This is also a prelude to dropping any claim to the vast majority of the children, which is the GOOD news. The BAD news is that we will soon see which children then intend to keep. In all honesty I think it's possible that there won't be any. One of these Friday afternoons, perhaps even this one, a good deal of them will be dropped. Maybe they don't want to give the parenting classes after all. I've alays had the distinct impression the parenting classes were just necessary window dressing. Drop these cases now, and you don't have to hold as many of them, it's a budget/enthusiasm thing.

We then move on to a criminal phase, and it's back to the warrants issue. I can't honestly see how Walther holds that together, or any subsequent judge does in a criminal proceeding. Up until now we've dealt with the rather liberal interpretations of law permitted in the supposedly "civil" action that custody is. Transferring the evidence of the raid to a criminal case is dicey.

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