For ease of working, I tend to have my torches in the left hand (shield) slot. Normally they will place like normal. The only time they won't is if I try to place it on a fence post. I have not experimented with other partial blocks, but this is a consistent issue.
Environment
Windows 8.1 and Java 1.8.0_45
Shift place them, fences can have a use action when holding leads, so when placing blocks you need to shift place.