Current:Home > ScamsGay marriage is legal in Texas. A justice who won't marry same-sex couples heads to court anyway -AssetLink
Gay marriage is legal in Texas. A justice who won't marry same-sex couples heads to court anyway
View
Date:2025-04-14 21:04:56
The Texas Supreme Court is reconsidering the case of a justice of the peace who for years turned away gay couples who wanted to get married even after same-sex marriage was legalized nationwide.
Oral arguments begin Wednesday in the case of Dianne Hensley, a justice of the peace in Waco who was reprimanded by the state’s judicial conduct commission in 2019 for only performing heterosexual weddings.
The new phase of the litigation is the first page in the final chapter of a controversial case that has lingered in the Texas court system – and hung over LGBTQ people in the state – for years. It’s yet another legal fight at the intersection of religious freedom and the civil rights of queer and transgender Americans. In recent years, as the makeup of the nation’s highest court has grown more conservative, that fight has only become more pronounced in lower courts across the country.
According to a public warning issued by the commission four years ago, which also cited reports in the Waco Tribune-Herald, Hensley and her staff started turning gay couples away around August 2016, about a year after the Supreme Court legalized same-sex marriage nationwide in the landmark ruling Obergefell v. Hodges. Hensley performed no marriages between the ruling and that time, according to her initial class-action petition.
That changed when she and her staff began handing gay couples documents that said: "I'm sorry, but Judge Hensley has a sincerely held religious belief as a Christian, and will not be able to perform any same sex weddings,” according to the commission's 2019 public warning.
The commission, an independent agency responsible for overseeing cases of judicial misconduct, warned Hensley she appeared to be violating state law. Hensley then sued the commission, arguing the reprimand violated her religious freedoms. Her case was eventually dismissed in appeals court. The state supreme court, which is made up entirely of Republicans, several of whom held on to their seats in the last midterm elections, agreed in late June to hear her appeal.
Selective justice of the peace:Appeals court rejects lawsuit by judge who declined to marry same-sex couples
A few days later, in a separate, widely anticipated decision, the United States Supreme Court ruled that a Colorado website designer could refuse service to LGBTQ clients on religious grounds. Hensley’s legal team soon filed a brief arguing that the ruling, 303 Creative LLC v. Elenis, should help her case. Her lawyers called the Supreme Court decision “instructive because it rejects the idea of a ‘compelling interest’ in forcing wedding vendors to participate in same-sex and opposite-sex marriage ceremonies on equal terms.”
A case about ensuring judges' impartiality
The Supreme Court case doesn't directly relate to Hensley's, one of her lawyers said. Hiram Sasser, with the Christian conservative legal group the First Liberty Institute, is among the attorneys representing Hensley. In an interview Tuesday, he said the 303 Creative case was a good example of how he wants to see the law applied to Hensley's situation.
He also defended his client. By referring gay couples to other justices who were more willing to perform weddings for them, she found a way to accommodate both her religious faith and all types of people seeking a low-cost wedding, he said.
Douglas S. Lang, a former appeals court justice representing the judicial commission in court, said Hensley’s argument that the commission discriminated against her religious beliefs isn't accurate.
The public warning, he said, was instead about her behavior, which Lang said demonstrated judicial bias.
“The Commission will stand up and argue for the preservation of the compelling interest to assure judges’ impartiality and support Texas citizens’ trust in the impartiality of the judiciary,” Lang said in an email to USA TODAY, summarizing the arguments he plans to make before the court Wednesday.
In an interview this month with the Dallas Morning News, Hensley said she didn't want to be “caricatured” as the case reenters the spotlight. She never received any complaints about turning away same-sex couples, she said. But she couldn't be held responsible for other people's feelings.
A college LGBTQ center disappeared.It wasn’t the only one.
“There have been many situations in my life when I didn’t feel overly welcomed or endorsed or whatever,” she told the newspaper. “I’m an adult. That’s just how life is.”
Johnathan Gooch, the communications director for the LGBTQ advocacy group Equality Texas, took issue with those comments. He told USA TODAY that gay couples in Texas haven’t complained about feeling unwelcome.
“They’re complaining that their rights are being ignored or overlooked,” he said. “That’s a very different situation.”
Zachary Schermele is a breaking news and education reporter for USA TODAY. You can reach him by email at [email protected]. Follow him on X at @ZachSchermele.
veryGood! (25)
Related
- Google unveils a quantum chip. Could it help unlock the universe's deepest secrets?
- Michigan woman had 'no idea' she won $2M from historic Mega Millions jackpot
- Hundreds of patients evacuated from Los Angeles hospital building that lost power in storm’s wake
- Michigan woman had 'no idea' she won $2M from historic Mega Millions jackpot
- Toyota to invest $922 million to build a new paint facility at its Kentucky complex
- Americans are demanding more: Desired salary for new jobs now nearly $79,000
- Inmates who wanted pizza take jail guard hostage in St. Louis
- FedEx fires Black delivery driver who said he was attacked by White father and son
- House passes bill to add 66 new federal judgeships, but prospects murky after Biden veto threat
- Inmates who wanted pizza take jail guard hostage in St. Louis
Ranking
- SFO's new sensory room helps neurodivergent travelers fight flying jitters
- Mississippi officer out of job after 10-year-old is taken into custody for urinating in public
- When does 'The Voice' Season 24 come out? Premiere date, coaches, how to watch
- Two families sue Florida for being kicked off Medicaid in 'unwinding' process
- North Carolina trustees approve Bill Belichick’s deal ahead of introductory news conference
- North Korea’s Kim lambasts premier over flooding, in a possible bid to shift blame for economic woes
- Rays shortstop Wander Franco put on administrative leave as MLB continues investigation
- Family desperate for return of L.A.-area woman kidnapped from car during shooting: She was my everything
Recommendation
Working Well: When holidays present rude customers, taking breaks and the high road preserve peace
'Unearthing' couples the natural world with the meaning of family
Books We Love: Book Club Ideas
Federal Regulators Raise Safety Concerns Over Mountain Valley Pipeline in Formal Notice
New data highlights 'achievement gap' for students in the US
Sha’Carri Richardson wins 100, claims fastest woman in world title
National Cinema Day returns for 2023 with $4 movie tickets at AMC, Regal, other theaters
Correctional officer at St. Louis jail freed after being held hostage by inmates