{"id":206093,"date":"2026-04-01T10:30:34","date_gmt":"2026-04-01T10:30:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/us-supreme-court-rules-against-colorado-ban-on-conversion-therapy-the-guardian\/"},"modified":"2026-04-01T10:30:34","modified_gmt":"2026-04-01T10:30:34","slug":"us-supreme-court-rules-against-colorado-ban-on-conversion-therapy-the-guardian","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/us-supreme-court-rules-against-colorado-ban-on-conversion-therapy-the-guardian\/","title":{"rendered":"US supreme court rules against Colorado ban on \u2018conversion therapy\u2019 – The Guardian"},"content":{"rendered":"

Court in 8-1 decision sides with Christian counselor who argues law banning the practice violates first amendment
The US supreme court<\/a> on Tuesday ruled against a law banning \u201cconversion therapy\u201d for LGBTQ+ children in Colorado<\/a>, one of about two dozen states that ban the discredited practice.
An 8-1 high court majority sided with a Christian counselor who argued the law banning \u201cconversion therapy\u201d 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.
Neil Gorsuch, the justice writing for the court, said the law \u201ccensors speech based on viewpoint\u201d. The first amendment, he wrote, \u201cstands as a shield against any effort to enforce orthodoxy in thought or speech in this country\u201d.<\/p>\n

Gorsuch\u2019s opinion drew support from the liberal justices, Elena Kagan and Sonia Sotomayor.<\/p>\n

<\/strong>A state could similarly not ban talk therapy designed to affirm a minor\u2019s sexual orientation or gender identity, Kagan wrote. \u201cOnce again, because the State has suppressed one side of a debate, while aiding the other, the constitutional issue is straightforward,\u201d she wrote.<\/p>\n

<\/strong>In a solo dissent, Ketanji Brown Jackson, a justice, wrote that states should be free to regulate healthcare, even if that means incidental restrictions on speech. The decision, Jackson wrote, \u201copens a dangerous can of worms\u201d that \u201cthreatens to impair states\u2019 ability to regulate the provision of medical care in any respect.
It 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.
Counselor Kaley Chiles, with support from Donald Trump\u2019s Republican administration, said the law wrongly barred her from offering voluntary, faith-based therapy for kids.
Chiles contends her approach is different from conversion 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.
\u201cI look forward to being able to help them when they choose the goal of growing comfortable with their bodies,\u201d Chiles said in a statement. \u201cCounselors walking alongside these young people shouldn\u2019t be limited to promoting state-approved goals like gender transition, which often leads to harmful drugs and surgeries.\u201d
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 \u201cconvert\u201d LGBTQ+ people to heterosexuality or traditional gender expectations, a practice that has been scientifically discredited and linked to serious harm.
The law did not violate the first amendment, Colorado argued, because therapy is different from other types of speech since it is a form of healthcare that the state has a responsibility to regulate.
Advocates for LGBTQ+ people condemned the ruling, as well as \u201cconversion therapy\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is a dangerous practice that has been condemned by every major medical association in the country. Today\u2019s decision does not change the science, and it does not change the fact that conversion therapists who harm patients will still face legal consequences,\u201d Polly Crozier, director of family policy at Glad Law, said in a statement.
The 2019 law carries the possibility of fines and license suspension, but no one has been sanctioned under it. The ruling is expected to eventually make similar laws in other states unenforceable.
Chiles was represented by the Alliance Defending Freedom, a conservative legal organization that has appeared frequently at the court in recent years. The group also represented a Christian website designer who successfully challenged Colorado anti-discrimination law because she did not want to work with same-sex couples.<\/p>\n

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

Court in 8-1 decision sides with Christian counselor who argues law banning the practice violates first amendmentThe US supreme court on Tuesday ruled against a law banning \u201cconversion therapy\u201d for LGBTQ+ children 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 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":206094,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-206093","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-us","8":"entry"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/206093","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=206093"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/206093\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/206094"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=206093"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=206093"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=206093"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}