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https://www.texastribune.org/2025/12/19/texas-judge-same-sex-marriage-supreme-court-obergefell/
A Waco justice of the peace who refused to marry same-sex couples filed a federal lawsuit Friday that asks the courts to overturn Obergefell v. Hodges, the 2015 Supreme Court decision that recognized same-sex marriage nationwide.
The case, filed by Judge Dianne Hensley against the State Commission on Judicial Conduct, asserts that the Obergefell ruling was unconstitutional because it “subordinat[ed] state law to the policy preferences of unelected judges.” Hensley is represented by Jonathan Mitchell, a conservative attorney best known as the architect of Texas’ 2021 abortion ban that skirted around the legal protections of Roe v. Wade.
“The federal judiciary has no authority to recognize or invent ‘fundamental’ constitutional rights,” Mitchell wrote.
In November, the U.S. Supreme Court declined to take up a similar case from Kim Davis, a former Kentucky county clerk.
While Mitchell acknowledged that a lower court does not have the authority to overturn a Supreme Court precedent, he indicated in the filing that he was introducing this argument now with the hopes of the case eventually reaching the high court.
Hensley’s case goes back to 2015, soon after the Supreme Court’s decision, when she opted to stop performing marriages due to her religious opposition to same-sex marriage. The next year, she resumed performing marriages for opposite-sex couples and began referring same-sex couples to other officiants.
A Waco justice of the peace who refused to marry same-sex couples filed a federal lawsuit Friday that asks the courts to overturn Obergefell v. Hodges, the 2015 Supreme Court decision that recognized same-sex marriage nationwide.
The case, filed by Judge Dianne Hensley against the State Commission on Judicial Conduct, asserts that the Obergefell ruling was unconstitutional because it “subordinat[ed] state law to the policy preferences of unelected judges.” Hensley is represented by Jonathan Mitchell, a conservative attorney best known as the architect of Texas’ 2021 abortion ban that skirted around the legal protections of Roe v. Wade.
“The federal judiciary has no authority to recognize or invent ‘fundamental’ constitutional rights,” Mitchell wrote.
In November, the U.S. Supreme Court declined to take up a similar case from Kim Davis, a former Kentucky county clerk.
While Mitchell acknowledged that a lower court does not have the authority to overturn a Supreme Court precedent, he indicated in the filing that he was introducing this argument now with the hopes of the case eventually reaching the high court.
Hensley’s case goes back to 2015, soon after the Supreme Court’s decision, when she opted to stop performing marriages due to her religious opposition to same-sex marriage. The next year, she resumed performing marriages for opposite-sex couples and began referring same-sex couples to other officiants.
