From the New York Times piece-

Texas Loses Court Ruling Over Taking of Children

HOUSTON — Bringing polygamist families closer to regaining custody of their children, a divided Supreme Court of Texas agreed Thursday that the state had illegally seized 468 girls and boys from a West Texas ranch last month on unproven grounds of physical and sexual abuse.

State officials said they would move swiftly to return the children.

The decision upholding a ruling of the Third Court of Appeals last week directed a state judge to revoke the custody order taking the children from the Yearning for Zion ranch in Eldorado.

But it gave no timetable for their return and said that the Texas Department of Family and Protective Services could still seek authority to protect any of the children in individual cases.

…

“They confirmed what the Court of Appeals said, which is that the children were taken from their parents illegally and they must be returned,” Mr. Parker said by telephone from San Angelo, where the custody hearings were held before the children were sent to foster homes across Texas.

In its ruling on May 22, the Third Court of Appeals, in Austin, said the state had failed to establish any immediate danger to the children and called their seizing illegal. The state appealed.

…

Some lawyers representing children were torn. Mary Jo McCurley, a Dallas lawyer and a former chairwoman of the state bar’s family law section, was appointed legal guardian of three of the children, including a daughter of the church’s prophet-leader Warren Jeffs, who is now in prison. Although the state did not win its case, Ms. McCurley said, it was important to remember that there were signs of abuse uncovered.

State and federal criminal investigations are under way and could still produce criminal charges.

“It’s really unfortunate, because obviously there are some children who have been sexually abused,” Ms. McCurley said. “But this doesn’t keep them from coming back and having another hearing. They could get their proof together, for example have a doctor come in and say this child is 13 years old and she has already given birth to another child, and the father of that child is 46 years old.”

So I suppose short of something happening, most of the kids go right on back in.

Apparently underage girls giving birth is no biggie. The State has apparently decided to look the other way, at least for the time being.

Guess that makes it official- age of consent laws are now pretty much null and void.

Which considering their history, (Go read “Delinquent Daughters: Protecting and Policing Adolescent Female Sexuality in the United States, 1885-1920” by Mary E. Odem) certainly makes for an interesting.