I’m sympathetic to Will’s and Kerry’s take on the FLDS business, but it seems to me that the details matter, and I haven’t seen enough details to be convinced there’s an open-and-shut child abuse case here. I haven’t looked very hard, so I believe they might be there, but they also might not. Which is why we have a judicial process to sort these things out.

That said, I’m extremely uncomfortable with the notion that “brainwashing,” in and of itself, is grounds for state intervention. It may be that the FLDS grown-ups teach their children all sorts of twisted, manipulative things about distrusting outsiders. And this may make them less inclined to explore the world outside their compounds and hear other points of view. But it would be extremely difficult to write laws to distinguish malevolent (and illegal) brainwashing from generically backwards religious views. This is the sort of thing that could only be determined from long-term, up-close observation of the way children are treated, and the state does not have (nor do we want it to have) the ability to spy on families that the authorities regard as creepy.

There appears to be evidence of statutory rape. That’s a relatively easy-to-define and plainly problematic crime that the state can and should prosecute. If there’s evidence that some of the teenage or pre-teen girls have been raped, that would be reasonable grounds for holding all of the girls between the ages of about 10 and 18 for their own protection until the charges can be resolved. But that’s not necessarily sufficient grounds to hold 5-year-old girls, and it’s certainly not sufficient grounds to hold the boys.

If Will and Kerry think the state’s actions in this case are justified, I’d be curious to see them articulate the principle that would govern cases like this. Obviously, as private citizens, we can and should be concerned about tight-knit groups that limit the autonomy of their members. But the state should only act pursuant to objective and clearly articulated legal principles. As much as I’d like to see “brainwashing” banished from the Earth, I certainly can’t think of any definition of brainwashing that wouldn’t sweep in a bunch of kooky but basically harmless forms of eccentricity.

Keep in mind that our foster care system is pretty lousy and over-stressed as it is. The alternative is not between these kids being brainwashed by FLDS or having loving parents. The alternative is probably them being brainwashed by FLDS or living the remainder of their childhoods as wards of the state, with no one in particular caring about their wellbeing. That may be an improvement, but it’s not much of one.