Get Ready for Another Rightward Lurch in the New Supreme Court Term

Another case, Chiles v. Salazar, will allow the justices to scrutinize Colorado’s ban on conversion therapy for young LGBTQ patients on First Amendment grounds. Nearly two dozen states forbid medical professionals from using treatments that try to change a person’s sexual orientation or gender identity, citing the scientific consensus that such treatments are both psychologically harmful and medically ineffective.

The plaintiff, Kaley Chiles, is a licensed counselor in Colorado Springs whose faith informs her treatment approaches. Chiles said that she does not currently practice conversion therapy. At the same time, she claimed that, since the 2019 law took effect, she “has been unable to fully explore certain clients’ bodily experiences around sexuality and gender and how their sensations, thoughts, beliefs, interpretations, and behaviors intersect.” Chiles hopes to have the law struck down on First Amendment grounds.

This is a familiar type of case before the Roberts court. As I noted earlier this year, Chiles has not faced any sort of punishment or sanctions from state officials for her counseling practices. Her pre-enforcement challenge resembles the one sought by a Christian web designer in Colorado who feared that she might have to design wedding websites for same-sex couples and sought to limit Colorado’s antidiscrimination law for public accommodations accordingly.