Judges in Texas can, tragically, now refuse to hold same-sex weddings, the state’s Supreme Court has ruled.

A judgement from the state’s top court will allow judges to refuse to perform marriages based on “sincerely held religious beliefs.”

Signed on Friday (24 October), Supreme Court justices argued in a ruling opinion that refusing to perform certain marriages is not a violation of the Texas Code of Judicial Conduct – a set of ethical standards that Texas judges must adhere to.

McLennan County judge, Dianne Hensley, sued the state after she was publicly sanctioned for refusing to perform same-sex weddings over what she described as a “Bible-believing” conscience.

The county justice of the peace argued in legal filings that the State Commission on Judicial Conduct violated her religio

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