In a decision issued on October 24 and signed by all nine justices of the Texas Supreme Court, the Texas Code of Judicial Conduct has been amended to permit judges in the state to publicly refuse to officiate same-sex weddings if doing so would conflict with their “sincerely held religious beliefs.”
The amendment specifically revises Canon 4, which regulates a judge’s external conduct and its effect on perceived impartiality. The new language states: “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.”
This ruling marks a notable moment for religious liberty in the Lone Star State. Though same-sex marriage remains legal under federal precedent, the amendment protects the right of individual judges to avoid participating in ceremonies that conflict with their faith convictions.
For years, Texas judges and commissions faced pressure about whether religious objections to same-sex marriage were permissible. For example, in 2019, a Waco justice of the peace who declined to marry a same-sex couple on Christian grounds was publicly warned by the Texas State Commission on Judicial Conduct.
The decision comes in the context of broader efforts in Texas to emphasize traditional understandings of marriage and to clamp down on woke gender ideologies.
By explicitly protecting judicial religious objection, the court has underscored that faith-based considerations remain a protected part of the public-office framework in Texas.
While same-sex marriages remain lawful, this amendment introduces a new dimension: the possibility of a couple encountering a judge who declines to preside based on religious grounds. The state will likely face questions about how such recusals are handled in practice. What remains clear is that Texas has drawn a line: judges will not be disciplined merely for refusing to perform a wedding ceremony that conflicts with their religious beliefs.
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