Christian judges in Texas are demanding the right not to marry same-sex couples. They’re winning.

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The State Commission on Judicial Conduct in Texas was overruled last week after it disciplined a justice of the peace in Waco for refusing to marry same-sex couples on religious grounds.

A Texas county judge ruled the commission cannot investigate, sanction, or discipline McLennan County Justice of the Peace Dianne Hensley for refusing to officiate same-sex weddings because of her Christian beliefs. Hensley was awarded $10,000 in compensatory damages and $630,000 in attorney’s fees after years of litigation.

“I think the agency overstepped itself, and what we saw was their bias on the issue and not the law,” Hensley told KERA News in North Texas.

The origin of Hensley’s suit dates back to Obergefell v Hodges, the 2015 U.S. Supreme Court decision granting nationwide marriage equality.

Judges and justices of the peace are allowed, but not required, to officiate weddings in Texas. After previously declining to marry any couples following the decision, Hensley changed her mind in 2016 and said she would marry straight couples only.

She advertised that stance in a 2017 interview with the Waco Tribune-Herald, adding that she referred same-sex couples to a different judge and other nearby officiants.

The judicial conduct commission launched an investigation soon after and, in 2019, issued a public warning to Hensley that she was in violation of commission rules.

With the support of First Liberty Institute, the right-wing Christian nationalist legal organization shepherding other anti-LGBTQ+ cases around the country, Hensley sued. First Liberty argued her decision was protected by the Texas Religious Freedom Restoration Act, signed into law by then-Gov. George W. Bush (R) in 1999. That law prohibits the government from making restrictions that “substantially burden” an individual’s freedom of religion.

“People cannot be made — cannot be forced into participating in things that they have a religious disagreement with,” First Liberty attorney Hiram Sasser said following last week’s verdict.

The suit prompted action from the Texas Supreme Court, as well. After agreeing that Hensley’s suit could continue, but not ruling on her religious freedom claims, the court said that judges who decline to perform a wedding ceremony based on a “sincerely held religious belief” won’t violate the state’s rules on judicial impartiality.

The court found a grey area where the absence of a requirement to perform wedding ceremonies grants officiants the right to marry whom they choose.

That support from the highest levels of the Texas judiciary appears to have emboldened Hensley’s claim that officiants should be allowed to marry whom they choose.

In December, Hensley asked a federal court to overturn marriage equality in the U.S. entirely, arguing that marriage for same-sex couples is unconstitutional because it was legalized in a decision that “subordinat[ed] state law to the policy preferences of unelected judges.”

Hensley is one among several Christian officiants claiming “religious freedom” in their opposition to marrying same-sex couples in Texas.

Jack County Judge Brian Umphress also sued the commission, alleging he was afraid he could face the same punishment as Hensley. The Texas Supreme Court ruled in January that he wouldn’t face discipline for his choice not to marry gay couples, KERA reported.

A class-action lawsuit in Tarrant County has been filed on behalf of justices of the peace who are unwilling to perform same-sex marriages. They’re looking to recover damages from the Judicial Conduct Commission because they say they were forced to stop performing weddings altogether in fear of disciplinary action.

Like Hensley, Kim Davis, the infamous Kentucky county clerk who refused to sign marriage licenses for same-sex couples immediately following the Supreme Court’s 2015 Obergefell v. Hodges decision, asked the Supreme Court to overturn its marriage equality ruling. The Court declined to hear her appeal in November.

Despite her lawsuit aiming to wipe out marriage equality, Hensley continues to maintain that her right to religious freedom isn’t impacting gay couples in Texas because others are available to marry them.

Now, though, she says there isn’t a big demand for her services, and she may stop officiating weddings altogether.

“I was just accommodating people who called needing a low-cost wedding, and it’s been long enough now we don’t get many calls anymore,” Hensley said. “So, unless we start getting a lot of demand, I may not.”