AUSTIN, Texas — A Texas appeals court has tossed a lawsuit filed by a justice of the peace who does not want to perform same-sex marriages.
On Nov. 3, the Austin-based 3rd Court of Appeals sided with the trial court in dismissing all of Dianne Hensley’s claims. She failed to make her case, the three-member panel wrote, that the State Commission on Judicial Conduct violated her religious freedom by reprimanding her for performing weddings solely for heterosexual couples.
“Hensley sought injunctive relief ‘that will prevent the Commission and its members from investigating or sanctioning judges or justices of the peace who recuse themselves from officiating at same-sex weddings on account of their sincere religious beliefs,’” the three justices — one Republican and two Democrats — wrote.
