The U.S. Supreme Court has struck down a Colorado law that bans licensed professionals from engaging in therapy with minors seeking to change their sexual orientation or help children with gender dysphoria accept their sex. In an 8-1 decision in the case of Kaley Chiles v. Patty Salazar, executive director of the Colorado Department of Regulatory Agencies, the high court concluded that Colorado’s ban unlawfully regulated the speech of Christian therapist Kaley Chiles.
Justice Neil Gorsuch delivered the opinion of the court, writing that “we conclude that the courts below failed to apply sufficiently rigorous First Amendment scrutiny in this case. While the First Amendment protects many and varied forms of expression, the spoken word is perhaps the quintessential form of protected speech. And that is exactly the kind of expression in which Ms. Chiles seeks to engage,” said Gorsuch. “Colorado’s law does not just regulate the content of Ms. Chiles’s speech. It goes a step further, prescribing what views she may and may not express.”
Gorsuch noted that “the First Amendment stands as a shield against any effort to enforce orthodoxy in thought or speech in this country” and that “any law that suppresses speech based on viewpoint represents an ‘egregious’ assault on both of those commitments.” The opinion reverses the 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals’ decision and sends the case back for further legal proceedings, with the majority opinion.
Justice Elena Kagan authored a concurring opinion, joined by Justice Sonia Sotomayor, writing that if Colorado had enacted “a viewpoint-neutral law, it would raise a different and more difficult question.” “Once again, because the State has suppressed one side of a debate, while aiding the other, the constitutional issue is straightforward,” she continued. “We need not here decide how to assess viewpoint-neutral laws regulating health providers’ expression because, as the Court holds, Colorado’s is not one.”
Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson was the lone dissent, arguing that, as a licensed medical professional, Chiles does not enjoy the broad First Amendment protections others do. Jackson believes that Colorado had the right to ban the therapy for minors due to multiple mainstream medical organizations denouncing the practice.
In 2019, Colorado passed the Minor Conversion Therapy Law, which prohibited “gay conversion therapy” for minors, after multiple similar bills had failed in previous legislative sessions. Daniel Ramos, executive director of the LGBT advocacy group One Colorado, released a statement at the time saying that it was a “significant step in protecting our LGBTQ youth.” “No young person should ever be shamed by a mental health professional into thinking that who they are is wrong,” stated Ramos. “Mental health care should be ethical and affirming for all people — including LGBTQ young people.” Chiles challenged the law in September 2022, claiming the measure violated the Free Speech Clause and Free Exercise Clause of the First Amendment of the Constitution.
Biblical Connection: While it is good news that the Supreme Court struck down the law, the fact it was able to be passed in the first place shows just how much power and influence the LGBT agenda has accumulated over the past ten years. Something clearly so unbiblical would never have been allowed for much of America’s history and shows the tremendous spiritual decline America has suffered.
PRAY: Pray this will halt the madness of the LGBT agenda and allow medical professionals to tell the truth to minors about how God masterfully created them.