“I have one hell of a problem with taking away the ability for those mothers to communicate with anyone they desire to, unless those women have been charged with a crime.”
We all do.
But these mothers, and children, are not allowed to communicate with anyone they desire to.
If they do, they can be sold or transferred like chattel, at the whim of Warren Jeffs and his merry band.
The government is worried that their ‘husbands’ will convince them to keep quiet, to protect the wealth, power, and ability to forcefully violate any woman or child of their choosing.
These children aren’t even sure who their biological mother is.
We might be violating the mothers right to call anyone, but if we don’t, aren’t we violating the trust of the nation by allowing children to be seduced by a cult that buys loyalty with little girls?
Texas might be violating their rights by confiscating the cell phones - they should take that up with their attorneys, but allow me to "monday-morning quarterback" for a moment. I would liked to have seen the prosecutor get a warrant to wiretap their phone calls for the express purpose to determine if witness tampering was taking place between the cult leaders and the women in custody. If not, let them have the phones and get off the tap. If so, sad as it sounds, witness tampering, especially if done over the phone in another state, would likely lead to more jail time than we'll see for other charges in this case.