Supreme Court Blocks Colorado Conversion‑Therapy Ban
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- Supreme Court issued an 8‑1 ruling that Colorado’s ban on conversion therapy is a restriction on speech, sending the case back for heightened scrutiny and likely overturning the ban.
- Justice Neil Gorsuch wrote the majority opinion stating that talk therapy is “speech” and the law targets a protected viewpoint, not conduct.
- Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson dissented, warning the decision could “impair States’ ability to regulate the provision of medical care” and risk grave health harm.
- Carmel Shachar of Harvard Law School noted the ruling could strip state medical boards of power to regulate clinicians’ speech, potentially affecting telehealth, Covid‑19 advice, and abortion counseling.
- Children’s Health Defense cited the decision as supportive of its lawsuits alleging state medical boards are disciplining doctors for Covid‑19 misinformation.
- American Psychological Association expressed alarm that treating talk therapy as speech could limit regulation of harmful or toxic therapeutic persuasion.
- Colorado law originally threatened license revocation for clinicians who attempt to change a patient’s gender or sexuality, but the Court classified it as viewpoint discrimination.
Why it matters: Clinicians who provide talk‑based therapy gain First‑Amendment protection from state licensing bans, while state medical boards lose authority to regulate such speech; the ruling also opens the door for challenges to other medical‑speech restrictions, from Covid‑19 advice to abortion counseling.
