The court heard a First Amendment challenge to a law that bans so-called conversion therapy.
By Catholics for Catholics
The Supreme Court heard oral arguments in a case involving a Colorado law that bans counselors from aiding kids who are confused about their genders.
However, after all was said on Tuesday, most of the justices seemed ready to strike down the law after they raised questions about free speech and science being politicized.
The case was presented to the Court after Kaley Chiles, a Christian counselor, challenged a Colorado law that prohibits counselors from encouraging kids from making “attempts or purports to change an individual’s sexual orientation or gender identity.” Chiles contends the law violates her First Amendment rights by blocking her from helping kids with gender identity issues feel comfortable in their own bodies.
Several of the justices seemed considerate to her free speech claims, even notoriously liberal Justice Elena Kagan.
According to The Wire, Justice Samuel Alito made inroads based on free speech criticism. The conservative justice criticized Colorado Solicitor General Shannon Stevenson’s argument, noting that the Court repudiated a similar contention in a 2018 case over a California law mandating crisis pregnancy centers provide information on how to obtain abortions.
Alito pushed Stevenson on free speech throughout oral arguments, at one point posing her with a hypothetical situation:
One viewpoint is the viewpoint that a minor should be able to obtain talk therapy to overcome same-sex attraction, if that’s what or he or she wants, and the other is the viewpoint that the minor should not be able to obtain talk therapy to overcome same sex attraction, even if that is what he or she wants. Looks like blatant viewpoint discrimination.
Stevenson countered, claiming that she believed both circumstances would be permissible under the Colorado law, because the counselor in those situations would not be looking to “change sexual orientation.”
The decision, which is expected to come over the summer, could impact over two dozen states that have implemented bans on “conversion therapy.”
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