Overview
- Hensley filed the federal case in Waco on December 19 seeking an order blocking the State Commission on Judicial Conduct from investigating or disciplining her and urging courts to overturn Obergefell and return marriage policy to the states.
- Her complaint argues the Supreme Court improperly created a constitutional right to same-sex marriage and asserts that federal judges lack authority to invent fundamental rights.
- She is represented by Jonathan Mitchell, who acknowledges lower courts cannot overrule Obergefell but frames the case as a vehicle for eventual Supreme Court review.
- The filing comes after the Texas Supreme Court added a comment allowing judges to refrain from officiating on religious grounds, which the commission says does not permit performing only opposite-sex weddings.
- Hensley previously performed marriages for opposite-sex couples while referring same-sex couples elsewhere, drew a 2019 public warning later withdrawn, and presses ahead as the Supreme Court recently declined to hear a similar Kim Davis challenge.