Supreme Court rules against Colorado ban on 'conversion therapy' for LGBTQ+ kids [View all]
Source: AP
Updated 10:27 AM EDT, March 31, 2026
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Supreme Court on Tuesday ruled against a law banning “conversion therapy” for LGBTQ+ kids in Colorado, one of about two dozen states that ban the discredited practice. An 8-1 high court majority sided with a Christian counselor who argues the law banning talk therapy violates the First Amendment. The justices agreed that the law raises free speech concerns and sent it back to a lower court to decide if it meets a legal standard that few laws pass.
Justice Neil Gorsuch, writing for the court, said the law “censors speech based on viewpoint.” The First Amendment, he wrote, “stands as a shield against any effort to enforce orthodoxy in thought or speech in this country.”
In a solo dissent, Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson wrote that states should be free to regulate health care, even if that means incidental restrictions on speech. The decision, Jackson wrote, “opens a dangerous can of worms” that “threatens to impair states’ ability to regulate the provision of medical care in any respect.”
The decision is the latest in a line of recent cases in which the justices have backed claims of religious discrimination while taking a skeptical view of LGBTQ+ rights.
Read more: https://apnews.com/article/supreme-court-conversion-therapy-colorado-92b34295f9ef497a4a1cbeb56c9b74c6
Link to RULING (PDF) - https://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/25pdf/24-539_fd9g.pdf
8-1 with Jackson as the lone dissent. This was apparently argued as a "Free Speech" case.
Article updated.
Original article/headline -
Updated 10:08 AM EDT, March 31, 2026
WASHINGTON (AP) -- The Supreme Court on Tuesday ruled against a law banning "conversion therapy" for LGBTQ+ kids in Colorado, one of about two dozen states that ban the discredited practice. An 8-1 high court majority sided with a Christian counselor who argues the law banning talk therapy violates the First Amendment. The justices agreed that the law raises free speech concerns and sent it back to a lower court to decide if it meets a legal standard that few laws pass.
It's the latest in a line of recent cases in which the justices have backed claims of religious discrimination while taking a skeptical view of LGBTQ rights. Counselor Kaley Chiles, with support from President Donald Trump's Republican administration, said the law wrongly bars her from offering voluntary, faith-based therapy for kids.
Chiles contends her approach is different from "conversion therapy" practices from decades ago, like shock therapy. Her attorneys argued that the ban makes it hard for parents to find therapists willing to discuss gender identity with kids unless the counseling affirms transition.
Colorado disagreed, saying its law does allow wide-ranging conversations about gender identity and sexual orientation and exempts religious ministries. The state says the measure simply bars using therapy to try to "convert" LGBTQ people to heterosexuality or traditional gender expectations, a practice that has been scientifically discredited and linked to serious harm.
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