Supreme Court Rules Against Colorado Conversion Therapy Ban in 8-1 Vote

The U.S. Supreme Court ruled Tuesday against Colorado's ban on "conversion therapy" for LGBTQ+ minors. In an 8-1 decision, the justices found the 2019 state law raises First Amendment free speech concerns and sent it back to a lower court for further review.

The majority sided with Kaley Chiles, a Christian counselor who argued the Colorado law wrongly prevented her from offering voluntary, faith-based talk therapy to minors struggling with gender identity. The Trump administration filed in support of Chiles. The justices did not strike down the law outright but directed lower courts to determine whether it can survive a demanding legal standard that few laws pass, according to the ruling released March 31.

For Treasure Coast families, the decision carries immediate legal relevance. Florida does not have a statewide ban on conversion therapy for minors, but the ruling is expected to complicate enforcement of any existing local ordinances targeting the practice and could foreclose future legislative efforts at the state level. Legal analysts warn similar laws in approximately two dozen states are now at risk of being rendered unenforceable as lower courts apply the Supreme Court's new standard.

Colorado defended its law as a regulation of professional health care conduct — not speech — arguing the state has clear authority to set standards for licensed therapists. The state also noted that religious ministries are explicitly exempt from the ban and that no licensed counselor had been fined or suspended under the law since its enactment. The practice the law targets, the state argued, has been scientifically discredited and linked to serious psychological harm.

Chiles was represented by the Alliance Defending Freedom, a conservative legal organization that has successfully challenged Colorado anti-discrimination law before the high court in prior terms.

The case now returns to a lower federal court, where Colorado must demonstrate the law satisfies the strict constitutional standard the Supreme Court applied. That court's ruling will determine whether conversion therapy bans in Colorado and similarly structured states survive.

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