Supreme Court rules against Colorado in First Amendment dispute over ‘conversion therapy’ ban

The Supreme Court handed a Colorado counselor a victory over the state’s “conversion therapy” ban, after she alleged the law infringed on her First Amendment rights.

The justices ruled 8-1 that Colorado’s conversion therapy law regulates speech based on viewpoints, and that the lower courts therefore failed to hold it to heightened First Amendment scrutiny, dealing state officials a major loss in their bid to uphold the law. Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson was the lone dissenting justice.

The dispute in Chiles v. Salazar centers around Kaley Chiles, a licensed counselor in Colorado, who claims that the state’s law banning “conversion therapy” unlawfully censors her ability to speak with children and families who seek her out by prohibiting her from trying to dissuade children from changing their gender identities or sexual orientations.

The case was brought to federal court by Chiles in 2022, but at both the federal district court and appeals courts, Chiles’s