_WHAT’S HAPPENING_
The Supreme Court ruled 8-1 on Tuesday that Colorado's ban on so-called "conversion therapy" for minors violates the First Amendment as applied to talk therapy.
The case centered on Kaley Chiles, a licensed Christian counselor who argued the 2019 law prevented her from helping clients who sought to resolve unwanted feelings about their sexual orientation or gender identity.
Justice Neil Gorsuch wrote for the majority that the law amounts to viewpoint discrimination, an "egregious" form of content regulation that the Constitution cannot tolerate. Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson stood alone in dissent, drawing criticism not just from her conservative colleagues but from fellow liberal Justice Elena Kagan.
_THE FACTS_
Justice Gorsuch wrote that "any law that suppresses speech based on viewpoint represents an 'egregious' assault" on First Amendment commitments to free thought and speech.
Colorado's 2019 law banned therapy attempting to "change an individual's sexual orientation or gender identity" while requiring therapists to provide "acceptance, support, and understanding" for gender transition.
Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson was the only dissenter, reading her entire 35-page dissent from the bench to signal strong disagreement.
Jackson's dissent was longer than the majority opinion and Justice Kagan's concurrence combined.
Liberal Justice Elena Kagan criticized Jackson in a footnote, saying her dissent "rests on reimagining — and in that way collapsing — the well-settled distinction between viewpoint-based and other content-based speech restrictions."
Conservative lawyer Ilya Shapiro noted that Kagan seemed "exasperated" by Jackson, suggesting there should be a separate descriptor for opinions "expressing exasperation with Justice Jackson."
The ruling sends the case back to lower courts to apply strict scrutiny, though Gorsuch's opinion strongly suggested the law would fail that test.
About 25 other states have similar laws that may now face legal challenges following this decision.
_OUR TAKE_
This case is unequivocal in its defense of free speech and in its complete rejection of leftist laws governing gender ideology.
The "conversion therapy" label was always designed to make you picture lobotomies and electroshock, as if a licensed therapist having a conversation with a confused teenager is somehow equivalent to that. It's not.
What Kaley Chiles actually does is talk therapy. A client comes in, struggling with questions about their gender, and talks it through with a professional. The idea that this needs to be banned — while surgeries and puberty blockers are not only allowed but encouraged — tells you everything about how backward Colorado’s laws are.
This is a crucially important decision by the Court — and a near-unanimous one — that will have ripple effects throughout the country.
