Democrat Maggie Ellis, who was elected chief justice of the Texas Supreme Court, told the Dallas Morning News she wants judges who perform weddings in Texas to also perform same-sex weddings. She said she would work with the other justices to amend the court's orders so that judges either perform all marriages or none. Ellis would need at least one Republican justice to support such a change, the story said.
In October 2025, the Texas Supreme Court added a comment to Canon 4 of the Texas Code of Judicial Conduct. The comment says a judge does not violate the canons by publicly declining to perform a wedding based on a sincerely held religious belief. The story said some lower courts had read the canon to require judges to perform same-sex weddings if they performed opposite-sex weddings. The court later clarified that judges may decline same-sex weddings while continuing to perform opposite-sex weddings, after the State Commission on Judicial Conduct still tried to interpret the rule differently.
The court will shift from 9-0 Republican control to 5-4 Republican control in January. Ellis will replace Republican Chief Justice Jimmy Blacklock. She previously served as a justice on the Third Court of Appeals in Austin.