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Lawyer is keen on justice for FLDS clients

I have great respect for Rod Parker. I am not LDS nor FLDS - not even Catholic, but I believe the rights of the FLDS were stepped on. Yes, we want to protect children, but you cannot step on an individual's right in doing so. You can cry "but what about the rights of the child?" In stepping over the law, this case was set backwards. If it had been accomplished slowly and with full thought, the case would have not been overturned or sent back to the lower court. By sidestepping the rights, you have failed the children you wanted to protect.

I respect lawyers like Rod and others who have fought unpopular fights in the name of civil rights. To allow all 463 children to be removed from the ranch under Texas authority would have been the greatest legal tragedy of our time. To "save" 463 children would have failed millions of children in America. It is not right for our government to break its own laws, voted by the people for the people, under any circumstances. What I have witnessed in Texas scares me to death. To think that by little or no evidence my kids can be taken from my personal home. And even with an incredible lack of evidence my kids can be taken from me, which would require me to pay mounds of money to fight and not to mention the time it takes. I appreciate people like Rod ... thank you.

The is no more ideal, yet real system for justice than we have under our Constitution. No system adjudicates successful government better on any other principles; particularly where individual rights are not superceded by State's rights.

If Rod parker is real, then suredly he understands and represents that our government must maintain autonomous political institutions, which must not be influenced, motivated or violated by false, dramatice, hysterical, conspiratorial and sensational pressures as we have witnessed in the FLDS raid and seizures. This would be why I respect Rod Parker.

Texas breached their public trust when they seized the children of the FLDS community. The only way this can be proven wrong, meaning that Texas didn't breach our government principles, would be if the State had entered the community with proper evidence and authority based on credible, probable cause allegations and arrested only specific individuals on specific charges and only took into protective custody the specific persons named in a warrant or any persons discovered who were actually being harmed and/or in imminent danger of being harmed.

Aside from Rod parker just doing business, he is also an American Hero protecting our government and individual rights.

Well said Marina. My hat is off to Rod Parker. It is good to know that there are some ethical, sincere and honest lawyers left who will stand up for justice regardless of the price. In him, there is hope for the lawyer profession.

How can any lawyer defend polygamy.....

They are breaking the law no matter how you slice it up.

1 man 2-25 wives... no matter how you add it up, it is still against the law!

I have always wondered how an attorney can rest knowing they were representing evil people, sometimes even murderers and helping them get away with it. HOWEVER, I do believe everyone has a side of the story to tell and they need representation. I only wish truth were the mainstay rather than doing whatever it takes to get someone off, even if it is clear they are guilty.

The Constitution must be protected and for that effort I applaud Rod Parker. Hopefully he would defend anyone in need of such assistance through the legal boondoggle and bureaucratic red tape that often causes even the innocent to suffer without fairness unless the court gets involved at great expense.

If he really wants to set about for justice, he could spend some time looking at the abuse that goes on in our own DCFS organization. People are wrongly accused all the time and they must prove their innocence (assuming they have the language, skills, understanding of their rights, and money for a lawyer to begin with). There are no watchdogs for this organization except their own, and they bend over backwards to protect their workers' decisions no matter how wrong they are.

i agree that everyone is entitled to a lawyer, we gave some to saddam hussien. but i think mr. parker has gone beyond being a lawyer to being the head spokesman for a cult. he is just a public relations firm, and a publicity hound, trying to whitewash a lifestyle that creates slaves and baby making machines out of women.

It's all about the money. He's a typical lawyer with wealthy clients, making a bundle representing them and he'll probably write a book to cash in even more.

Even that "good lawyer" was one of many good lawyers that represented FLDS.
Parker served as a spokesman for the group while dozens of his collegues filed brief after brief on behalf of the mothers.
Just think of the average mother battling CPS, unable to hire or beg good legal help.

I agree with Mr. Parker's colleague - he is acting in the highest tradition of the American bar.

I just hope he gets a chance to continue that tradition in suing the State of Texas, and all those involved in the travesty, on behalf of those harmed by its actions.

Where was the ACLU when the Constitutional rights of the FLDS were being abused by the CPS and the judge. Do they only go to bat for liberal causes which help destroy Western Civilization?

I really appreciate Ryan's comment on this blog.
Rod Parker is an American Hero for defending a people who most of the world would rather hang. He helped show that the allegations were false. Even the underage marraiges were so small (they found ONE after their big cry of SO MANY!!) I'm grateful Rod Parker gave of himself like that. Maybe other lawyers could take his great example. How many other children have been taken from homes that were in reality good parents, but because it was just one family, CPS got away with it. It's time for CPS reform to be demanded by every honest American.

I would like to see polygamy prosecuted rather than pandered.

Laws protect our society. If we pick and choose which laws we will uphold and which we will ignore we are setting ourselves up for chaos and destruction.

Thank God for people like Rod Parker!!
I am neither FLDS nor LDS, but most of my posts have been pro FLDS because I truly think that the constitutional rights of these people have been trampled on by the state of Texas. My grandfather, a history teacher, ingrained the idea in me that we should never give up even one of our constitutional rights. He taught me that we should not only protect our own rights but also those of people we may not agree with because if one of us looses basic rights, we all do!! Mr. Parker seems to believe in the same ideals!

I can't believe all the hate from you folks. Don't you realize even these people have civil rights. Or is that reserved for only a few ? Why is it so easy for all these good Mormons to jump on the bandwagon and condem these people without due process when so much of this has happened to them in the past? I'm just glad there are still people that have the balls to stand up for the under dog.

Whoa! Just wait on cotton-pickin' moment. How?????? and betty: The case was about the right of Texas DCFS to remove 463 children with little evidence. It was not about polygamy; it was about basic civil rights for them (FLDS), for me, and for you. It would be like somebody calling to report animal abuse in your neighborhood. The government comes in, finds evidence that someone doesn't walk their dog, someone has a gerbal in a cage that is too small, and someone is keeping too many cats. So, they remove every animal in your neighborhood until they can figure it out.

if Mr. Parker was an active LDS member, would his membership in the church be scrutinized by his local church leaders?

This WHOLE story is utterly disgusting!

HOW?????? 7:48 "How can any lawyer defend polygamy....."

IMO this isn't the question here. No one has been charged with polygamy (yet!). No lawyer is defending a client against a non-existent charge.

HOW?: "They are breaking the law no matter how you slice it up. 1 man 2-25 wives... no matter how you add it up, it is still against the law!"

Texas law forbids certain descriptions of behavior -- not the behavior itself.

Polygamy isn't mentioned in Texas code -- check for yourself.

How many men, and how many women, make up a conjugal group in Texas isn't addressed by Texas law. The Lone Star State has only criminalized calling certain groups "marriages."

As long as a one-man, many-women conjugal group doesn't use words like "husband," "wife," and "marriage," Texas law doesn't outlaw that group.

Polygamy, if the right words are used to describe it, is perfectly legal in Texas.

Even child rapists are due a legal defense. Its good to see lawyers step up to the plate, even if they disagree with a life style. Plus, he might get some nice $$ out of a book deal, later.