Overview
- The court, in an 8–1 decision Tuesday, held that Colorado’s law, as applied to counselor Kaley Chiles’s talk therapy, discriminates by viewpoint and must face strict scrutiny on remand.
- Justice Neil Gorsuch wrote the majority opinion that framed the therapy conversations as protected speech, while Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson dissented and warned the decision could undermine state oversight of medical care.
- Justices Elena Kagan and Sonia Sotomayor concurred with the outcome and observed that a content-based but viewpoint-neutral rule could present a different legal question.
- Colorado defended its 2019 measure as a health regulation meant to protect minors from a discredited practice, citing medical groups that link conversion efforts to harm, and the state noted no provider has been sanctioned under the law.
- The decision is expected to spur challenges to more than 20 similar state bans and may reset how courts review rules that restrict what licensed professionals can say during treatment.