A Texas judge is looking to overturn the Supreme Court’s 2015 ruling recognizing same-sex marriage across the nation.
Judge Dianne Hensley, a justice of the peace in Waco, Texas, argues in the filing that the decision threatens her religious freedom. “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.
Hensley officiated an estimated 80 weddings prior to the 2015 ruling. “After the Supreme Court’s ruling in Obergefell, Judge Hensley officiated four additional weddings that had been previously scheduled before the Court’s ruling, and then her office did not book any more weddings between June 26, 2015, and August 1, 2016,” the filing adds. After August 2016, she again officiated weddings “because no judges or justices of the peace in Waco were officiating any weddings in the aftermath of Obergefell.”
“Rather than categorically refusing to officiate weddings, and wanting to provide a reasonable accommodation for everyone, Judge Hensley decided that she would resume officiating weddings between one man and one woman, as she had done before Obergefell,” it continues. “Judge Hensley also decided to recuse herself from officiating same-sex weddings and politely refer same-sex couples to other officiants in McLennan County who are willing to perform their ceremonies.”
The lawsuit further notes that no same-sex couple has ever complained to the State Commission on Judicial Conduct or to Hensley’s staff about her referral system.
Despite calls to revisit the ruling, the Supreme Court last month rejected a challenge to its ruling legalizing same-sex marriage. In a brief order, the Court declined to revisit the ruling for the Davis v. Ermold case, where former Rowan County, Kentucky clerk, Kim Davis, was held in contempt after refusing to issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples.
