"In response, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit put the lower federal-court proceedings on hold and asked the Texas Supreme Court to answer the question, "Does Canon 4A(1) of the Texas Code of Judicial Conduct prohibit judges from publicly refusing, for moral or religious reasons, to perform same-sex weddings while continuing to perform opposite-sex weddings?" That part of the code requires judges to refrain from behavior that would "cast reasonable doubt on the judge's capacity to act impartially as a judge.""
"In an end run around equal protection concerns, the high court amended the Texas Code of Judicial Conduct to read, "It is not a violation of these canons for a judge to publicly refrain from performing a wedding ceremony based upon a sincerely held religious belief." The change follows years of litigation that inspired a lawsuit by a county judge in Texas asking federal courts to declare that Texas law does not and cannot punish him for his practice of officiating opposite-sex, but not same-sex, marriages in the state."
Texas Supreme Court amended the Texas Code of Judicial Conduct to state that a judge may publicly refrain from performing a wedding ceremony based upon a sincerely held religious belief. The amendment followed years of litigation and a 2020 lawsuit by Jack County Judge Brian Umphress, who performed opposite-sex but not same-sex marriages and feared sanction by the Texas State Commission on Judicial Conduct. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit asked the state high court whether Canon 4A(1) prohibits judges from publicly refusing same-sex ceremonies while performing opposite-sex weddings. The high court issued the amendment without public argument.
Read at LGBTQ Nation
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