The Supreme Court ruled Tuesday against states’ efforts to ban so-called “conversion therapy” for LGBTQ+ minors. Two of the Court’s liberal justices sided with their conservative colleagues in striking the ban on freedom of speech grounds, granting a legal victory to Christian conservatives who favor these treatments. One liberal justice, Ketanji Brown Jackson, dissented, warning that the decision could lead to medically dangerous treatments.
The Supreme Court struck down the conversion therapy ban for violating the First Amendment
The Supreme Court ruled 8-1 to strike down a Colorado law banning conversion therapy for youth. These controversial therapies have been used by Christian conservative counselors to attempt to change the sexual orientation or gender identity of LGBTQ+ youth. Other medical experts and LGBTQ+ advocates have warned that the therapies are ineffective and could be harmful. The Colorado law banned “any practice or treatment” applied to minors for the purposes of changing their “gender expressions or to eliminate or reduce sexual or romantic attraction or feelings toward individuals of the same sex.” The law, which has never been enforced, stipulated a $5,000 fine for each violation and specified that counselors could also lose their licenses for violating the statute.
@nbcnews The Supreme Court ruled that Colorado’s ban on conversion therapy aimed at youths struggling with their sexual orientation or gender identity violates the free speech rights of a conservative Christian therapist.
Evangelical Christian Kaley Chiles sued the state in 2022 on the grounds that the law was an infringement upon religious liberty. The Supreme Court’s ruling in the case focused on “talk therapy,” ruling that banning such talk-based techniques in the context of conversion therapy was a violation of the First Amendment right of free speech.
“Colorado may regard its policy as essential to public health and safety. Certainly, censorious governments throughout history have believed the same,” Justice Neil Gorsuch wrote on behalf of the majority. “But the First Amendment stands as a shield against any effort to enforce orthodoxy in thought or speech in this country.”
Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson dissents; the Supreme Court rules in favor of religious practice
Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson wrote the lone dissent to the Court’s decision. In her opinion, she warned that the decision could facilitate dangerous medical care, and the fact that this care was administered vocally shouldn’t negate the state’s interest in regulating medical practices.
“The Constitution does not pose a barrier to reasonable regulation of harmful medical treatments just because substandard care comes via speech instead of scalpel,” Jackson wrote in her dissent, arguing that the Court’s decision “risks grave harm to Americans’ health and well-being.”
Jackson’s dissent notwithstanding, the Supreme Court has often given leeway to religious practices and beliefs, and the conservative majority has in recent years often ruled in favor of religious freedom, as well as freedom of speech and expression, in the context of conservative religious actors. For example, in 2018, the Supreme Court ruled in favor of the owner of the Masterpiece Cakeshop, who had been cited for discrimination in Colorado for refusing to bake a wedding cake for a same-sex couple. In that case, the Court ruled that the baker’s religious and expressive freedoms had been violated in the case.
The ACLU has argued that, in recent years, issues of First Amendment protections for religion have sometimes been placed against laws and policies that promote LGBTQ+ rights and protections. While the courts have not fully sorted out how to balance these sometimes-competing claims, Tuesday’s Supreme Court ruling is being viewed as a victory for Christian conservatives and a setback for advocates of LGBTQ+ youth.
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