News/Commentary

Court awards former judge $640,000 in same-sex wedding dispute

June 24, 2026 | | Print Article

A Texas judge who was disciplined for recusing herself from performing same-sex marriages has won a $640,000 lawsuit.

McLennan County Justice of the Peace Dianne Hensley, who’s been at her post since she won election in 2014, declined to officiate all weddings after the Supreme Court ruled in favor of gay weddings way back in 2015, according to the Houston Chronicle.

Two years later, in 2016, she started performing straight weddings but referring gay weddings to other judges. A year later, she boasted about her decision during an interview with the Waco Tribune-Herald.

“My conscience was bothering me because so many people were calling and wanting a wedding,” she said, explaining why she suddenly decided to start performing straight weddings (but not gay weddings) in 2016.

Months later, in 2018, the Texas State Commission on Judicial Conduct began investigating her over her remarks to the Waco Tribune-Herald.

One year later, in 2019, the commission slammed Hensley with a public warning, which the Chronicle notes is “one of the more severe sanctions that the commission hands down.”

ADVERTISEMENT

The commission said that Hensley “should be publicly warned for casting doubt on her capacity to act impartially to persons appearing before her as a judge due to the person’s sexual orientation in violation of Canon 4A(l) of the Texas Code of Judicial Conduct,” as reported by station KXXV.

In response, Hensley sued the commission. Years later, in 2024, she won a partial victory when the Texas Supreme Court first ruled that her suit could move forward, and then the commission decided to rescind the warning.

But she wanted more — Hensley specifically wanted the Texas Supreme Court to amend its rules to permit Texas judges to refuse to perform gay weddings on religious grounds, according to the Chronicle.

Last Friday, Hensley won when the District Court of Travis County issued a final judgment in her favor, according to her lawyers with the First Liberty Institute.

“The final judgment awards Judge Hensley $10,000.00 in compensatory damages under the Texas Religious Freedom Restoration Act — the maximum allowed under the statute — and permanently enjoins the Commission from ‘investigating, sanctioning, or disciplining Judge Hensley over her refusal to officiate at same sex weddings on account of her religious beliefs,'” a First Liberty press release reads.

ADVERTISEMENT

The court also ordered the commission to pay $630,000 to cover Hensley’s attorney fees.

“It’s a great victory for people of faith,” First Liberty Institute executive general counsel Hiram Sasser told Fox News in an interview after last Friday’s ruling. “It’s important for people of faith to be able to decline to participate in things that they find that are incompatible with their religious faith.”

“I think one of the great things about how Judge Hensley handled things here is that she not only was exercising a religious faith to say, ‘Hey, look, I can do some marriages, but not others,’ but she was also being a good neighbor. She had a referral system in place for people whose weddings she could not perform,” he added.

Indeed, she was serious about referring gay weddings to judges who could perform them. This wasn’t required of her, but she did it anyway.

ADVERTISEMENT

He also believes that, had Hensley not pushed back, the warning would have grown into something far worse.

“They gave her a warning that if she continued to do any kind of weddings without performing same-sex weddings that they would, you know, take it to the next level and continue the punishment against her, which, you know, there’s lots of different actions that they could have taken,” he noted.

“So it started off with the warning, and that’s what we were fighting for, fighting for her right to be able to provide a good public service for folks,” he added.

In a statement to Fox News, Hensley, for her part, said, “All I wanted to do was serve our community and maintain my faith commitments. I am thankful the law prevailed after eight long years, and we restored religious liberty to the land.”

Vivek Saxena
Latest posts by Vivek Saxena (see all)

Comment

We have no tolerance for comments containing violence, racism, profanity, vulgarity, doxing, or discourteous behavior. If a comment is spam, instead of replying to it please click the ∨ icon below and to the right of that comment. Thank you for partnering with us to maintain fruitful conversation.

Latest Articles