Dianne Hensley is the latest person trying to overturn same-sex marriage in the US

Judge Diane Hensley (YouTube/25 News KXXV)

Judge Diane Hensley filed a lawsuit asking the court to overturn Obergefell v. Hodges in the latest attack on same-sex marriage in the United States.

According to , Judge Hensley handed down the case on Friday (December 19). texas tribune. The document seeks to overturn Obergefell v. Hodges, the 2015 Supreme Court decision that legalized same-sex marriage nationwide.

The lawsuit continues an ongoing legal dispute between Mr. Hensley and the State Commission on Judicial Conduct, an independent Texas agency charged with investigating allegations of judicial misconduct.

This all started when Hensley wanted to be allowed to perform weddings for opposite-sex couples instead of same-sex couples.

Who is Judge Diane Hensley?

Judge Hensley, a magistrate judge in Waco, Texas, is leading recent efforts to reverse same-sex marriage. Hensley has been a Waco-based judge since 2015 and is one of about 800 justices of the peace in Texas.

In 2018, the state Commission on Judicial Conduct began an investigation into Hensley’s conduct.

In 2019, Hensley faced public sanctions for refusing to officiate at a same-sex wedding. They argued that Mr. Hensley had breached the Code of Judicial Conduct, which prohibits judges from exceeding their judicial role and taking any action that could impair their impartiality.

In its warning, the Judiciary Committee said Hensley’s conduct called into question “her ability to act fairly toward those who appear before her as a judge because of their sexual orientation.”

As a result, Mr. Hensley filed suit. She claimed that the National Judicial Conduct Commission violated her religious rights as a Christian.

The Texas Supreme Court subsequently amended the judicial norms, stating that “it does not violate these norms for a judge to publicly refrain from performing a wedding ceremony based on sincerely held religious beliefs.”

How does Judge Diane Hensley plan to overturn same-sex marriage?

In her attempt to overturn same-sex marriage, Ms. Hensley argued that the original Obergefell v. Hodges decision was “unconstitutional.”

Hensley’s lawsuit alleges it is “subordinate.”[ed] It aligns state law with the policy preferences of unelected judges. ”

Hensley is being represented by Jonathan Mitchell, a conservative lawyer known for his work on the 2021 anti-abortion bill that revolved around Roe v. Wade’s legal protections.

“The federal judiciary has no power to recognize or invent ‘fundamental’ constitutional rights,” Mitchell wrote.

The lawyer also said, “Lower courts do not have the authority to overturn Supreme Court precedent. [but] He said in his filing that he is raising this argument now in the hope that the case will eventually reach the High Court. ”

Additionally, Michel wrote that the court should send Obergefell v. Hodges back to the states, as it did in the abortion case.

“The committee’s bullying of Judge Hensley and its acts of intimidation against other Christian judges are a direct result of the Supreme Court’s decision in Obergefell that gay marriage is a constitutional right,” Mitchell wrote. “There is nothing in the text of the Constitution that even remotely suggests that gay marriage is a constitutional right.”