Waco Justice of the Peace Dianne Hensley has launched a new legal broadside at same-sex marriage, filing a federal lawsuit Friday in Waco that asks a judge to toss out the U.S. Supreme Court’s landmark Obergefell decision and to stop the State Commission on Judicial Conduct from disciplining her over which weddings she will perform. After the 2015 Obergefell ruling, Hensley stopped performing same-sex ceremonies, then later resumed officiating only opposite-sex weddings while referring same-sex couples elsewhere. The new case revives a long-running fight over whether judges can refuse to officiate same-sex marriages on religious grounds.
Hensley’s filing seeks to undo Obergefell
As detailed by The Texas Tribune, Hensley’s federal complaint, filed by attorney Jonathan F. Mitchell, asks a judge to block the commission from investigating or punishing her and urges the courts to overturn Obergefell so that states regain control over marriage regulation. Mitchell argues in the filing that the federal judiciary has no authority to create what his team describes as newly minted “fundamental” rights. According to The Texas Tribune, the suit landed Friday in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Texas, Waco Division.
Long-running fight over officiating
Hensley’s standoff with state judicial authorities dates back to 2015, when she declined to officiate same-sex weddings, a choice that triggered a commission inquiry in 2018 and a public warning in 2019, according to Reuters. The commission said then that her public position raised concerns about whether litigants could trust her impartiality. Hensley has maintained that she was acting in line with sincerely held religious beliefs. Reuters reports that the commission eventually rescinded the warning, but Hensley’s attorneys say the possibility it could be revived keeps the controversy very much alive in court.
State courts changed the rules
In October, the Texas Supreme Court adopted a new comment to Canon 4 of the state Code of Judicial Conduct stating that “it is not a violation of these canons for a judge to publicly refrain from performing a wedding ceremony based upon a sincerely held religious belief,” according to an order posted on the Supreme Court of Texas website. The State Commission on Judicial Conduct has countered in its own filings that this comment does not authorize a judge to welcome opposite-sex couples into her chambers while turning away same-sex couples, a position outlined in reporting by Texas Public Radio.
What the federal complaint says
The new federal complaint asks the court to bar the commission from investigating or disciplining Hensley and to declare that the commission violated her constitutional rights, The Texas Tribune reports. The filing characterizes Obergefell as an overreach that, in its words, “subordinat[ed] state law to the policy preferences of unelected judges,” and it presses the courts to restore full authority over marriage laws to state legislatures. The lawsuit names the State Commission on Judicial Conduct as the sole defendant, seeks injunctive relief, and is framed with an eye toward eventual appellate review.
National context and who’s behind the filing
Mitchell, Hensley’s lead lawyer, has drawn national attention for his role in helping to design Texas’ 2021 abortion enforcement scheme, as profiled by The Guardian. This new effort to get federal courts to revisit Obergefell comes on the heels of the U.S. Supreme Court’s November decision not to hear a similar challenge brought by former Kentucky clerk Kim Davis, according to The Associated Press. That denial underscores one immediate obstacle for opponents of same-sex marriage rights, but lawyers and court watchers note that a steady stream of lower-court cases can still be used to build appeals and potentially set up another Supreme Court test.
What to watch next
The case will now move forward in the Western District of Texas in Waco, where the clerk is expected to set deadlines for the commission’s response and for any emergency motions, according to the court’s Waco Division listings. Local coverage has also highlighted that an appeals court previously reversed a trial court’s dismissal in Hensley’s related state-court religious-freedom case and sent portions of that dispute back for more proceedings, a wrinkle that could affect how quickly this new federal suit advances, per KWTX. If Hensley’s case survives the early procedural fights, the record could move up to the Fifth Circuit and, eventually, land before the U.S. Supreme Court.
Legal implications
Legal scholars note that any move by a federal district judge to overturn Obergefell would be extraordinary and would almost certainly trigger rapid appeals, with the broader constitutional battle potentially stretching out for years. Reuters has previously reported that the commission views Hensley’s claims as a bid for a “license to discriminate,” while her supporters cast the dispute as a straightforward religious-liberty case. That fault line will shape how both sides brief the issues, approach discovery, and calibrate the stakes at every stage of appeal.
