Why It Matters
The U.S. Supreme Court’s decision in a Colorado conversion therapy case has significant implications for LGBTQ+ youth protections across the country. The ruling affects not only Colorado’s 2019 law banning licensed mental health professionals from practicing conversion therapy on minors, but potentially similar statutes in more than two dozen other states. The case centers on how far government can go in regulating the content of speech between a licensed therapist and a client.
What Happened
The U.S. Supreme Court ruled Tuesday against Colorado’s ban on conversion therapy for LGBTQ+ minors, finding that the state law may impermissibly regulate speech based on viewpoint in violation of the First Amendment. The 8-1 decision, authored by Justice Neil Gorsuch, does not strike down the law outright but holds that a higher legal standard — known as “strict scrutiny” — must be applied when courts evaluate the law’s constitutionality.
The case originated when Colorado therapist Kaley Chiles sued the state’s Department of Regulatory Agencies in 2022, arguing that the law violated her First Amendment rights as a conservative Christian counselor. The Supreme Court sided with Chiles on the legal standard to be applied and sent the case back to a lower court to conduct the full strict scrutiny analysis and issue a final ruling on whether the law can stand.
Colorado’s law, House Bill 19-1129, was signed in 2019 by Governor Jared Polis. It prohibits licensed mental health professionals from engaging in any practice that attempts to change the sexual orientation or gender identity of a minor client. Polis, the first openly gay man elected governor of any U.S. state, said Tuesday that he was “evaluating the U.S. Supreme Court ruling and working to figure out how to better protect LGBTQ youth and free speech in Colorado.”
By the Numbers
- The court ruled 8-1 in favor of vacating the lower court’s decision and applying strict scrutiny to Colorado’s law.
- Colorado passed House Bill 19-1129 in 2019, more than six years before the Supreme Court’s ruling.
- At least 22 other states and the District of Columbia have enacted laws similar to Colorado’s banning conversion therapy for minors, according to a joint report from The Trevor Project and the Movement Advancement Project.
- Chiles filed her lawsuit against Colorado’s Department of Regulatory Agencies in 2022, approximately four years after the law took effect.
- Justice Gorsuch was joined by seven other justices in the majority opinion, with only one justice dissenting.
Zoom Out
The Supreme Court’s decision has immediate national relevance. More than two dozen states, including California, New York, Illinois, Washington, and Virginia, have enacted laws restricting or banning licensed mental health providers from conducting conversion therapy on minors. Legal advocates on both sides of the issue have indicated those laws may now face renewed court challenges under the stricter First Amendment standard the Supreme Court has required.
The ruling fits into a broader pattern of the current Supreme Court applying heightened scrutiny to laws that regulate professional speech. Courts have historically debated whether the government may restrict what licensed professionals say in the course of their work, and this decision advances the principle that viewpoint-based restrictions on such speech face a high constitutional bar. States with conversion therapy bans will now need to evaluate whether their laws can survive strict scrutiny review in the federal courts.
Governor Polis acknowledged the practical stakes for affected youth, stating that “conversion therapy doesn’t work, can seriously harm youth,” and cautioning Coloradans about practitioners offering such services. Major medical and psychiatric organizations, including the American Psychological Association and the American Medical Association, have consistently stated that conversion therapy is not a recognized or evidence-based practice and carries documented risks of psychological harm.
What’s Next
The case now returns to the lower federal court, which must apply the strict scrutiny standard to Colorado’s law and determine whether the state’s interest in protecting minors from potential psychological harm is compelling enough, and the law narrowly tailored enough, to survive First Amendment challenge. That court process could take months or longer before a final determination is issued.
Governor Polis’s office has indicated the state is actively reviewing its legal options and possible legislative responses. Attorneys in other states with similar conversion therapy bans are expected to assess the ruling’s implications for their own statutes in the coming weeks.