Dianne Hensley, a judge in Waco, Texas, is suing the state agency that gave her a public warning last month for refusing to officiate same-sex weddings while continuing to officiate heterosexual ones. The lawsuit, filed Monday, claims the State Commission on Judicial Conduct’s warning violates Hensley’s rights under the Texas Religious Freedom Restoration Act. Hensley is represented by the First Liberty Institute, a nonprofit religious-freedom law firm. Judge Dianne Hensley.Courtesy First Liberty “By investigating and punishing Judge Hensley for acting in accordance with the commands of her Christian faith, the Commission and its members have substantially burdened the free exercise of her religion, with no compelling justification,” the lawsuit claims. Hensley was elected as a justice of the peace in January 2015, five months before the U.S. Supreme Court legalized same-sex marriage nationwide in the landmark Obergefell v. Hodges decision. For the next year Hensley, like most public officials in McLennan County who were authorized to, did not officiate any marriages, according to the lawsuit. But in August 2016 she began officiating weddings again, and since then she has married 328 straight couples — but not a single gay couple. The state commission warned her that her actions were […]
