{"id":10548,"date":"2026-04-01T08:55:26","date_gmt":"2026-04-01T08:55:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/stockrel.com\/index.php\/2026\/04\/01\/supreme-court-blocks-colorados-so-called-conversion-therapy-ban-on-first-amendment-grounds\/"},"modified":"2026-04-01T08:55:26","modified_gmt":"2026-04-01T08:55:26","slug":"supreme-court-blocks-colorados-so-called-conversion-therapy-ban-on-first-amendment-grounds","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stockrel.com\/index.php\/2026\/04\/01\/supreme-court-blocks-colorados-so-called-conversion-therapy-ban-on-first-amendment-grounds\/","title":{"rendered":"Supreme Court blocks Colorado\u2019s so-called \u2018conversion therapy\u2019 ban on First Amendment grounds"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/div>\n

The Supreme Court ruled Tuesday that Colorado cannot enforce its so-called “conversion therapy” ban regarding conversations between therapists and minors, saying the law likely violates the First Amendment by allowing some viewpoints but not others.<\/p>\n

In an 8\u20131 decision, the high court said the law favors one viewpoint by allowing therapists to affirm a minor’s gender identity or sexual orientation, but not help them to change it if they want to.<\/p>\n

The decision stemmed from a lawsuit brought by Kaley Chiles, a licensed Christian therapist, who argued her conversations with youth clients were a form of protected speech. The Colorado government had said the conversations amounted to professional conduct that the state was allowed to regulate.<\/p>\n

SUPREME COURT SKEPTICAL OF “CONVERSION THERAPY” LAW BANNING TREATMENT OF MINORS WITH GENDER IDENTITY ISSUES<\/strong><\/p>\n

\n
<\/div>\n<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

At issue in the case was a law Colorado<\/u> passed in 2019 that banned what the state government described as conversion therapy.<\/p>\n

Justice Neil Gorsuch wrote the majority opinion, saying the question before the high court was a “narrow one” and that Chiles did not seek to toss out the Colorado law but rather consider whether it could apply to therapy that was strictly conversational.<\/p>\n

“The First Amendment stands as a shield against any effort to enforce orthodoxy in thought or speech in this country,” Gorsuch wrote. “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. However well-intentioned, any law that suppresses speech based on viewpoint represents an \u2018egregious\u2019 assault on both of those commitments.”<\/p>\n

SUPREME COURT REJECTS SOUTH CAROLINA’S BID TO ENFORCE TRANSGENDER BATHROOM BAN<\/u><\/strong><\/p>\n

\n
<\/div>\n<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

In the lone dissent, Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson said the majority “plays with fire in this case” and that she feared “the people of this country will get burned.”<\/p>\n

“Before now, licensed medical professionals had to adhere to standards when treating patients: They could neither do nor say whatever they want,” Jackson wrote. “Largely due to such State regulation, Americans have been privileged to enjoy a long and successful tradition of high-quality medical care.”<\/p>\n

About two dozen states and Washington, D.C., have laws in place that are similar to Colorado’s that could be affected by the Supreme Court’s decision.<\/p>\n

\n
<\/div>\n<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Chiles’ lawyers had said in court papers that she believed that people “flourish when they live consistently with God\u2019s design, including their biological sex.” They said Chiles used faith-based counseling to “reduce or eliminate unwanted sexual attractions, change sexual behaviors, or grow in the experience of harmony with one\u2019s physical body.”<\/p>\n

Colorado Solicitor General Shannon Stevenson had countered during oral arguments in October that no court had ever held that a law like Colorado’s implicated the First Amendment, saying the law applied only to treatments.<\/p>\n

“A state cannot lose its power to regulate the very professionals that it licenses just because they are using words,” Stevenson had said. <\/p>\n

Alliance Defending Freedom attorney Jim Campbell, who argued the case on behalf of Chiles before the Supreme Court, called the ruling a “significant win.”<\/p>\n

“Kids deserve real help affirming that their bodies are not a mistake and that they are wonderfully made. The U.S. Supreme Court\u2019s decision today is a significant win for free speech, common sense, and families desperate to help their children,” Campbell said in a statement. “States cannot silence voluntary conversations that help young people seeking to grow comfortable with their bodies.”<\/p>\n

Fox News’ Bill Mears contributed to this report. <\/i><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Supreme Court ruled Tuesday that Colorado cannot enforce its so-called “conversion therapy” ban regarding…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":10549,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-10548","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-politics"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stockrel.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10548","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stockrel.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stockrel.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stockrel.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stockrel.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10548"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/stockrel.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10548\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stockrel.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/10549"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stockrel.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10548"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stockrel.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10548"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stockrel.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10548"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}