Overview
- Dianne Hensley filed a federal complaint on Dec. 19 in the Western District of Texas against the State Commission on Judicial Conduct, seeking damages and an order blocking investigations or discipline tied to her refusal to officiate same-sex weddings.
- The lawsuit argues Obergefell v. Hodges was unconstitutional and asserts that federal courts cannot invent fundamental rights, with the filing stating the claim is preserved for a possible future appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court.
- Hensley stopped officiating weddings after the 2015 ruling, later resumed opposite-sex ceremonies while referring same-sex couples elsewhere, received a 2019 public warning that was later withdrawn, and now faces ongoing dispute over the scope of a revised Texas judicial canon.
- In October, the Texas Supreme Court added language allowing judges to publicly refrain from weddings for religious reasons, but the Commission maintains this does not permit performing opposite-sex ceremonies while refusing same-sex couples.
- Prospects for undoing Obergefell remain uncertain after the Supreme Court declined last month to hear Kim Davis’s similar bid, and even if the precedent fell, the Respect for Marriage Act would still require states to recognize marriages performed elsewhere while dormant state bans could reemerge.