WASHINGTON – TheSupreme Courton March 31 said Colorado's ban on LGBTQ+ "conversion therapy" for young people infringes on the free speech rights of a Christian counselor, the latestlegal setback for LGBTQ+ Americansfrom the high court.
Colorado officials argued that the law − which is similar to restrictions in about half the states – regulates professional conduct, not speech. And major medical groups have repudiated conversion therapy as ineffective and harmful.
But the Supreme Court sided 8-1 with the therapist challenging the ban, agreeing that the Denver-based 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals should have applied a stricter constitutional test to evaluate the law. The court sent the case back to the appeals court to be reconsidered under the tougher test, which it is unlikely to pass.
Enacted in 2019, Colorado's Minor Conversion Therapy Lawdefines conversion therapyas attempts to "change an individual's sexual orientation or gender identity, including efforts to change behaviors or gender expressions or to eliminate or reduce sexual or romantic attraction or feelings toward individuals of the same sex."
Writing for the majority, Justice Neil Gorsuch said Colorado's law tells the therapist "what views she may or may not express."
"Colorado may regard its policy as essential to public health and safety. Certainly, censorious governments throughout history have believed the same," Gorsuch wrote. "But the First Amendment stands as a shield against any effort to enforce orthodoxy in thought or speech in this country."
Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson, who read portions of her dissent from the bench, said the court's decision threatens to prevent states from regulating medical care, risking "grave harm to Americans' health and wellbeing."
"The Constitution does not pose a barrier to reasonable regulation of harmful medical treatments just because substandard care comes via speech instead of a scalpel," she wrote.
People gather in prayer as protesters rally outside the Supreme Court as the justices hears oral arguments on whether Colorado's ban on providing conversion therapy to LGBTQ+ children violates a private therapist's rights to free speech." style="max-width:100%; height:auto; border-radius:6px; margin:10px 0;" loading="lazy" /> 
Demonstrators on both sides of the issue of conversion therapy gather outside the Supreme Court as the Court hears oral arguments in Chiles v. Salazar, a landmark case on conversion therapy." style="max-width:100%; height:auto; border-radius:6px; margin:10px 0;" loading="lazy" /> 
People gather in prayer as protesters rally outside the Supreme Court." style="max-width:100%; height:auto; border-radius:6px; margin:10px 0;" loading="lazy" /> 
A man wears a shirt reading "conversion therapy sucks" outside the Supreme Court." style="max-width:100%; height:auto; border-radius:6px; margin:10px 0;" loading="lazy" /> 
Protesters rally outside the Supreme Court." style="max-width:100%; height:auto; border-radius:6px; margin:10px 0;" loading="lazy" /> 
A man wears a shirt reading "conversion therapy dropout" gathers with demonstrators outside the Supreme Court." style="max-width:100%; height:auto; border-radius:6px; margin:10px 0;" loading="lazy" /> Demonstrators gather outside Supreme Court over conversion therapy case
Christian counselor backed by Trump administration
Kaley Chiles, a licensed counselor with a master's degree in clinical mental health who said she practices from a Christian perspective, said the law allows her to help young people embrace a transgender identity but not help them "grow in peace and comfort with the body that you're in."
The Justice Department under the Trump administration backed Chiles, telling the court that Colorado "is muzzling one side of an ongoing debate in the mental-health community about how to discuss questions of gender and sexuality with children."
Colorado argued conversion therapy is harmful
During the October oral arguments, Colorado state attorney Shannon Stevenson said there's no evidence that conversion therapy works, while studies have shown that "telling someone there is something innate about yourself you can change" is harmful.
But Chiles' attorney disputed the applicability of studies to her form of counseling.
And the Justice Department pointed to a problem with relying on the "prevailing standard of care" to regulate therapy, noting that as recently as the 1970s, the medical community agreed that being gay was a mental illness.
The American Psychiatric Association declassified homosexuality as a mental illness in 1973.
More than a dozen mental health and medical professional organizations – including the American Psychological Association and the American Psychiatric Association – now say efforts to change someone's sexual orientation, gender identity, or gender expression "do not meet the criteria of a legitimate therapeutic treatment."
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Still, in 2023, The Trevor Project – an advocacy group for LGBTQ+ people – saidit foundmore than 600 professional counselors who say they can help alter someone's sexual orientation or gender identity. (The group identified hundreds of additional unlicensed counselors who operate through a religious capacity and are not covered by laws like Colorado's.)
"The Supreme Court's decision to treat the dangerous practice of conversion therapy as constitutionally protected speech is a tragic step backward for our country that will put young lives at risk," Trevor Project CEO Jaymes Black said in a statement after the ruling.
Chiles, the Colorado therapist, called the decision "a victory for counselors and, more importantly, kids and families everywhere."
"Counselors walking alongside these young people shouldn't be limited to promoting state-approved goals like gender transition, which often leads to harmful drugs and surgeries," she said.
Justice Elena Kagan, one of the two liberals who voted with the court's six conservatives, said Colorado may be able to regulate counseling as long as the state's rules are "viewpoint-neutral."
"Fuller consideration of that question, though, can wait for another day," she wrote in a concurring opinion joined by Justice Sonia Sotomayor. "We need not here decide how to assess viewpoint-neutral laws regulating health providers' expressions because, as the Court holds, Colorado's is not one."
In a statement, Colorado Gov. Jared Polis said he is considering how to proceed. Polis, the country's first openly gay elected governor, signed the law.
"Conversion therapy doesn't work, can seriously harm youth, and Coloradans should beware before turning over their hard-earned money to a scam," said Polis, a Democrat. "I am evaluating theU.S. Supreme Courtruling and working to figure out how to better protect LGBTQ youth and free speech in Colorado."
String of losses in LGBTQ+ cases from Colorado
Colorado, a pioneering state for gay rights, has beenat the centerof two previous Supreme Court cases about LGBTQ+ issues in the past seven years.
More:From 'hate state' to pioneer, Colorado has another LGBTQ+ case at Supreme Court
In those cases, the court sided witha website developeranda cake bakeropposed to providing some services to gay customers because of their religious beliefs.
More recently, in a case from Tennessee, the Supreme Court ruled last year that states can bangender affirming care for minors, including surgeries, puberty blockers and hormone treatments.
More:Supreme Court to take up blockbuster case on transgender athletes joining girls' teams
The justices are currentlyconsideringwhether states can prevent transgender girls and women from playing on female sports teams.
Contributing: Trevor Hughes
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY:Supreme Court rules against ban on conversion therapy for minors
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