Texas to Appeal FLDS Court Verdict

May 22, 2008— -- SAN ANGELO, Texas — Texas child welfare authorities are planning to appeal a stinging ruling that found they had no right to seize more than 440 children from a polygamist sect's ranch.

Osler McCarthy, a spokesman for the Texas Supreme Court, says Child Protective Services notified the court Friday that "they will file something today."

McCarthy says the state would ask the high court to block the ruling Thursday from the Third Court of Appeals in Austin that said the state failed to show the children were in any immediate danger when they were rounded up last month.

Members of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints hailed Thursday's ruling as vindication. They've said there was no abuse at the ranch in west Texas and they are being persecuted for their religious beliefs.