Agency lawyers said that they still have been unable to identify family relationships and repeated claims that the parents made it deliberately difficult to establish paternity.

"Failure to grant a stay will mean that approximately 124 children will be returned to alleged mothers without any male sexual perpetrators being identified," Texas CPS lawyer Duke Hooten wrote.

Texas CPS lawyers also expressed concern that if the Supreme Court upholds the appellate court's decision, the FLDS might flee Texas.

Lawyers for the 38 mothers responded, taking issue with the agency's characterization of a San Antonio court proceeding that ended with 12 children being reunited with their parents. The FLDS mothers' attorneys noted that CPS agreed to send the children back to their parents, with conditions.

"The department's agreement to reunite some children with their parents undermines the reasons it has articulated for the stay," attorney Amy Warr wrote. "First, it undermines the department's insistence that every single child is in imminent danger of abuse because of the parents' beliefs."

Warr also said it contradicts CPS's claim that without DNA testing, it can't match children with their parents, and that the agency has been allowing visitation and requiring family service plans to be signed.

If the 3rd Court of Appeals ruling stands, CPS said, the FLDS children "will be at risk of continuing sexual and emotional abuse, which certainly is not in the children's best interest."

Status hearings, which help determine the terms of reunification for parents and children, are on hold in San Angelo again today pending a high court decision. It is unknown if they will resume on Thursday.

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E-mail: bwinslow@desnews.com