Supreme Court takes up challenge to Colorado conversion therapy ban

WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court on Monday agreed to hear a challenge to a law in Colorado that bans “conversion therapy” aimed at young people questioning their sexual orientation or gender identity.

The justices took up an appeal brought by Kaley Chiles, a Christian therapist, who argued that the restriction violates her free speech rights under the Constitution’s First Amendment.

Favored by some religious conservatives, the practice is aimed at encouraging gay or lesbian minors to change their sexual orientations and transgender children to identify as the gender identities assigned to them at birth. More than 20 states have bans on therapy aimed at minors.

Chiles often has clients who are Christians, some of whom have questions about their sexual orientation and gender identity amid concerns that they are unable to live their lives in accordance with their faith, according to court papers. As such, they seek counseling to suppress unwanted sexual attractions or to resolve conflicts about their gender identity.

“These clients believe their lives will be more fulfilling if aligned with the teachings of their faith, and they want to achieve freedom from what they see as harmful self-perceptions and sexual behaviors,” Chiles’ lawyers at the Alliance Defending Freedom, a conservative Christian advocacy group, wrote in their court filing.

They cite in part the Supreme Court’s 2018 ruling that struck down on free speech grounds a California law that required anti-abortion pregnancy clinics to notify clients about abortion access.

The lawyers argue that the bans have “devastating real world consequences” including on rare cases of “detransitioners” — the small proportion of transgender people who change course and wish to identity as the gender they were assigned at birth.

Limiting counseling options communicates to “countless minors they have no choice but to medically transition,” the lawyers said.

Colorado officials wrote in their brief that the state measure regulates conduct, not speech. If courts were to rule in favor of Chiles, it would “undercut states’ longstanding ability to protect patients and clients from harmful professional conduct,” the officials said.

A federal judge and the Denver-based 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals both ruled in favor of the state.

The Supreme Court has on several occasions refused to take up challenges to similar conversion therapy bans, most recently in December 2023, when it left a law in Washington state in place. Three conservative justices said at that time they would have taken up the case.

The new case will be argued and decided in the court’s next term, which starts in October and ends in June 2026.