Judge Who Won’t Oversee Same-Sex Weddings Wants Suit Revived

A Jack County, Texas, judge who declines to marry same-sex couples due to his Christian beliefs has standing to challenge a state commission’s interpretation of a judicial canon in a way that chills his religious rights, his lawyers will tell the Fifth Circuit Tuesday.

Judge Brian Keith Umphress says he faces potential future discipline based on the commission’s view that refusing to officiate same-sex marriages violates Canon 4A(1) of the Texas Code of Judicial Conduct because it casts doubt on a judge’s ability to treat LGBT litigants impartially.

The enforcement threat is “real” in light of a warning the state ...