In a March 31 decision (Chiles v. Salazar), the Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) ruled in favor of Kaley Chiles, a licensed Christian therapist, because a Colorado law infringed on her free speech rights by banning her from helping young people struggling with same-sex attraction or gender dysphoria to live consistently with God’s design via talk therapy.
Colorado’s law, adopted in 2019, prohibits licensed counselors from engaging in “conversion therapy” with minors, defining the term to include “any practice or treatment that attempts to change an individual’s sexual orientation or gender identity,” as well as any “effort to change behaviors or gender expressions or to eliminate or reduce sexual or romantic attractions towards individuals of the same sex.” Counselors who violate the law may be subject to $5,000 fines and the loss of their licenses.
The 8-1 ruling found that Colorado’s law banning conversion therapy regulates speech based on viewpoint, and that the lower courts erred by failing to apply sufficiently rigorous First Amendment scrutiny: “The First Amendment stands as a bulwark against any effort to prescribe an orthodoxy of views, reflecting a belief that each American enjoys an inalienable right to speak his mind and a faith in the free marketplace of ideas as the best means for finding truth. Laws like Colorado’s, which suppress speech based on viewpoint, represent an egregious assault on both commitments.” Justice Gorsuch wrote the majority opinion, and Justice Jackson was the lone dissent.
The Catholic World Report has published a legal analysis of the case, available here.