A Texas justice of the peace who declined to officiate same-sex weddings because of her Christian beliefs has launched a new federal lawsuit aimed at overturning the Supreme Court’s 2015 ruling that legalized same-sex marriage nationwide.
Judge Dianne Hensley, who has served as a justice of the peace in Waco since 2015, filed suit Friday in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Texas against the State Commission on Judicial Conduct, an agency with which she has been locked in a prolonged legal dispute.
Represented by former Texas Solicitor General Jonathan Mitchell, Hensley argues that the Supreme Court’s decision in Obergefell v. Hodges is unconstitutional and unlawfully restricts her religious freedom and free speech rights.
“Officiating a wedding ceremony is speech, and the commissioners are preventing Judge Hensley from engaging in this speech unless she agrees to perform homosexual marriages in violation of her Christian faith and in violation of Texas law,” the lawsuit states.
Following the Supreme Court’s 2015 ruling, Hensley and several other judges and justices of the peace in Waco chose to stop officiating weddings altogether. When same-sex couples requested that Hensley perform a ceremony, she instead provided a written apology explaining that her refusal was based on what she described as a “sincerely held religious belief as a Christian,” according to a report by KXXV-TV.
“I have no desire to offend anybody, but the last person I want to offend is God,” Hensley previously said. “So I’m entitled to accommodations just as much as anyone else.”
Later that year, the State Commission on Judicial Conduct publicly sanctioned Hensley, alleging that her actions violated judicial ethics rules governing conduct outside a judge’s official duties. That sanction, however, was withdrawn in September 2024 after a ruling by the Texas Supreme Court prompted a reassessment of the case.
In October, the Texas Supreme Court issued guidance clarifying the state’s Judicial Code of Conduct, concluding that “it is not a violation of these canons [of the Texas Code of Judicial Conduct] for a judge to publicly refrain from performing a wedding ceremony based upon a sincerely held religious belief.”
As part of a Dec. 1 court filing in Travis County District Court, lawyers for the commission argued that the panel’s clarification did not give Hensley permission to “opt out” of certain officiating duties while opting to perform others.
“The comment only gives a judge the authority to ‘opt out’ of officiating due to a sincere religious belief, but does not say that a judge can, at the same time, welcome to her chambers heterosexual couples for whom she willingly offers to conduct marriage ceremonies,” the filing stated.
According to Hensley’s lawsuit, she officiated approximately 80 weddings before the Supreme Court showed same-sex marriage constitutional protection in 2015. Since that decision, she has conducted only four weddings, all of which had been scheduled prior to the ruling.
