By Matthew Vadum, Sam Dorman
Contributing Writers
The Supreme Court ruled on Tuesday that Colorado’s ban on so-called conversion therapy for minors conflicted with therapists’ right to free speech.
In an 8-1 decision, the justices said a lower court erred in its decision not to block the law. The court’s majority opinion was written by Justice Neil Gorsuch.
The Colorado law “censors speech based on viewpoint,” Gorsuch said, and “Colorado may regard its policy as essential to public health and safety.”
“Certainly, censorious governments throughout history have believed the same. But the First Amendment stands as a shield against any effort to enforce orthodoxy in thought or speech in this country,” he said.
“It reflects instead a judgment that every American possesses an inalienable right to think and speak freely, and a faith in the free marketplace of ideas as the best means for discovering truth.”
The sole dissenter was Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson, who said the “fallout” from the new ruling could be “catastrophic.” She said her colleagues failed to consider “the potential long-term and disastrous implications of this ruling.”
The case, Chiles v. Salazar, was brought by therapist Kaley Chiles, who said Colorado’s law unconstitutionally infringed on her ability to help minors struggling with gender dysphoria and unwanted same-sex attraction.
Conversion therapy is “any emotional or physical therapy used to ‘cure’ or ‘repair’ a person’s attraction to the same sex, or their gender identity and expression,” according to WebMD.
Twenty-three states and the District of Columbia ban conversion therapy for minors, according to a report by the Movement Advancement Project.
Colorado’s Minor Conversion Therapy Law allows officials to take away the licenses of health care professionals who are determined to have offered conversion therapy to minors.
Chiles argued that the law banning conversion therapy encourages young people to change their sexual orientation or gender identity away from the heterosexual norm and prohibits the provision of counseling for same-sex desires or identification with the opposite gender.
A federal court previously declined to block the law, stating that Colorado was regulating professional conduct rather than constitutionally protected speech.
