Supreme Court Strikes Down Colorado Conversion Therapy Ban
High court said Colorado's law 'censors speech based on viewpoint' and sent the case back for lower-court review in an 8-1 decision.
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Overview
The Supreme Court on Tuesday ruled 8-1 against Colorado's ban on conversion therapy for minors, siding with counselor Kaley Chiles.
Justice Neil Gorsuch wrote the majority opinion saying the law "censors speech based on viewpoint" and urged stricter First Amendment scrutiny, with Justices Elena Kagan and Sonia Sotomayor joining.
Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson was the sole dissenter, writing the decision "opens a dangerous can of worms" and warning it "threatens to impair States' ability to regulate the provision of medical care."
Colorado's 2019 law carries potential fines up to $5,000 and license suspension, and 23 states ban conversion therapy for minors while four others have some restrictions, according to the Movement Advancement Project.
The court sent the case back to a lower court to decide whether the law meets a legal standard few laws pass, and the ruling is expected to make similar bans in other states unenforceable.
Analysis
Center-leaning sources frame the ruling as a setback for LGBTQ rights by opening with evaluative language ("a blow to LGBTQ rights"), foregrounding medical consensus and survivor harm (suicide risk, statements from AMA/APA) while presenting free-speech claims as source content (Gorsuch, Chiles). Editorially, conservative legal arguments are downplayed relative to harm-focused context.