The Texas Supreme Court ruled a Waco judge has standing to sue the State Commission on Judicial Conduct for issuing a public warning against her because she refused to marry same-sex couples.
But the court stayed silent on whether McLennan County Justice of the Peace Dianne Hensley is protected from punishment under the Texas Religious Freedom Restoration Act.
Hiram Sasser, an attorney with the conservative religious freedom legal nonprofit First Liberty Institute who helped represent Hensley, lauded the opinion in a press release Friday.
鈥淛udge Hensley鈥檚 way of reconciling her religious beliefs while meeting the needs of her community is not only legal but should stand as a model for public officials across Texas,鈥� Sasser said. 鈥淭his is a great victory for Judge Hensley and renews her opportunity to seek justice under the religious liberty protections of the law.鈥�
Attorneys for the State Commission on Judicial Conduct did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
After the 2015 landmark U.S. Supreme Court case Obergefell v. Hodges required judges and justices of the peace to either officiate gay and straight marriages or none at all, Hensley chose the latter. She said her beliefs as a Christian wouldn鈥檛 allow her to do so.
But Hensley grew concerned over turning away straight couples who wanted to get married and resumed performing weddings in 2016 for straight couples only, referring gay couples to other officiants. She told the Waco Tribune-Herald of that decision the next year, prompting an investigation in 2018 from the State Commission on Judicial Conduct.
The commission issued a public warning against Hensley in 2019, saying her decision cast doubt on her ability to seem impartial as a judge. An attorney who argued for the state commission during oral arguments last year said the issue was with her conduct, not her beliefs.
Instead of appealing the warning through an internal process, Hensley sued under the Texas Religious Freedom Restoration Act. It prohibits the government from making restrictions that substantially burden a person鈥檚 freedom of religion.
A district and appeals court both dismissed Hensley鈥檚 case because she didn鈥檛 exhaust her internal appeal options. The courts granted the commission sovereign immunity, ruling the state governmental agency was protected from liability.
In its opinion, the Texas Supreme Court said Hensley was allowed to file a lawsuit with her Texas RFRA claim without appealing internally beforehand. The high court also ruled that the commission's sovereign immunity claims don't apply.
In a concurring opinion, Justice Jimmy Blacklock wrote the court should have immediately ruled in favor of Hensley鈥檚 claims that being punished for not marrying gay couples violates her religious freedom.
Dale Carpenter, a constitutional law professor at Southern Methodist University, told 四虎影院 in October it would be 鈥渦nprecedented and aggressive鈥� to make that kind of decision.
"There should be a lot more evidence taken on that kind of a question before they make that decision," he said.
It鈥檚 now up to a lower court of appeals to address the religious freedom claims.
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