Over the past several years, the Center for Law & Religious Freedom has filed multiple amicus briefs with Texas courts on behalf of two Texas judges whose Christian consciences did not permit them to officiate marriages between people of the same sex, even though performing marriages is not part of their mandatory official duties. One judge received a public reprimand by the Texas State Commission on Judicial Conduct, while the second judge faced a similar public reprimand. After various appeals and the filing of the Center’s briefs, the state commission changed its ethics rule 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.”
