The Colorado law, which mirrors regulations in nearly two dozen other states, prohibits medical practitioners from performing treatment that «attempts or purports to change an individual’s sexual orientation or gender identity.»
The nine Supreme Court justices splintered Tuesday over a challenge to a Colorado law banning licensed mental health professionals from performing voluntary conversion therapy to change the sexual orientation or gender identity of minors.
Conservatives on the high court sounded skeptical about the constitutionality of the 2019 ban, while the three liberal justices seemed to lean against arguments by attorneys backing Christian therapist Kaley Chiles.
“Just because they are engaged in conduct,” Chief Justice John Roberts said of conversion therapists, “doesn’t mean their words aren’t protected.”
The Colorado law, which mirrors regulations in nearly two dozen other states, prohibits medical practitioners from performing treatment that “attempts or purports to change an individual’s sexual orientation or gender identity.”
Chiles filed a lawsuit arguing that banning talk therapy aimed at converting one’s sexual orientation or gender identity violates her free speech rights.
“This is an unusual case,” began liberal Justice Sonia Sotomayor, “because we have basically six years of no enforcement of this law — three before this lawsuit, three since — and we have the entity charged with administering the law saying, ‘We’re not going to apply it to your kind of therapy.’”
During oral arguments Tuesday, Chiles’ attorney, James Campbell, sought to contrast talk therapy with invasive procedures such as the administration of medicine or electronic shocks, which he seemed to acknowledge can be regulated.
