FLDS Round-up

*  The ACLU has issued a statement on the raid of the Texas compound of the Fundamentalist Latter-day Saints (FLDS).  It sets forth a set of principles and then assesses the government's performance thus far based on those principles.   Here's a quote from the statement:  "Based upon news reports and other available information, the ACLU has serious concerns that the state’s actions so far have not adequately protected the fundamental rights at stake."

*  A letter from Senator Majority Leader Harry Reid indicates that "[a] senior Justice Department prosecutor will work with Utah, Arizona and Nevada to review how the federal government can help attack polygamy related crimes."  The letter is from Reid to Utah Attorney General Mark Shurtleff and Arizona Attorney General Terry Goddard, and it reportedly says "that U.S. Attorney General Michael Mukasey has appointed a senior, career prosecutor to work with the Western states' officials on how federal authorities might help tackle this complex problem' of crimes in polygamous sects. "  The Salt Lake Tribune notes that this move is "essentially seen as a preliminary step toward a federal task force on polygamy."

*  The New York Times reports on preparations for a town hall meeting on polygamy that law enforcement officials from Utah and Arizona will host this evening.  There's an excerpt from that piece below the fold.

A previous post on these issues is here.

From The New York Times:

As law enforcement officials from Utah and Arizona prepare for what they expect to be a capacity crowd town-hall-style meeting on polygamy on Thursday — planned north of here in St. George, Utah, before the Texas raid but now proceeding with an added urgency — polygamist gossip is only one of the many consequences of the raid that they are encountering.

Rumors of an imminent Texas-style police crackdown — the authorities say none is contemplated — are among the new constants of life here, the historic heartland of the F.L.D.S. Some polygamists, who had considered moving to Texas, are putting down roots again here, even cooperating with the authorities. Others are speaking out publicly, trying to distinguish their forms of plural marriage (no under-age brides) from what the authorities say was practiced by the sect in Texas. . . .

Recent statements by Senator Harry Reid of Nevada, a Democrat and the Senate majority leader, calling for toughened enforcement of laws against polygamy, possibly with an expanded federal role by the Department of Justice, have sent a particular shiver, with questions swirling about what the states will do under federal pressure.

“They think they’re going to be next — that there’s so much pressure being brought on me that I’m going to raid them,” said Utah’s attorney general, Mark L. Shurtleff, a Republican. “They hear the rumors, and they call.”

Mr. Shurtleff said he planned no change in tactics, and no mass raids, which he said would only destroy the trust needed to protect people, including the young girls his office is trying to help. It is a point, he said, that he intends to make forcefully on Thursday night on a shared stage with the Arizona attorney general, Terry Goddard, at the meeting in St. George, about 45 miles from here.

Mr. Goddard, a Democrat, said he too intended to continue pursuing accusations of abuse case by case, with no mass arrests or seizures in the offing.

“I don’t know how I can make a case that all the children in Colorado City are in danger,” Mr. Goddard said.