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The Supreme Court heard arguments Tuesday in a case that examines whether counseling services for minors facing gender identity and sexual orientation questions are protected by the First Amendment.
Kaley Chiles, a licensed Christian therapist, argues that her conversations with youth clients are a form of protected speech. The Colorado government, however, sees them as professional conduct that falls under its authority to regulate.
Chiles’ lawyers describe her in court papers as a person who “believes that people flourish when they live consistently with God’s design, including their biological sex.”
Chiles, whose practice is based in Colorado Springs, uses “faith-informed” counseling to engage in talk therapy with young people who are “seeking to reduce or eliminate unwanted sexual attractions, change sexual behaviors, or grow in the experience of harmony with one’s physical body,” according to her lawyers.
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People flank State Rep. Dana Michaelson Jenet as she speaks during a signing of two bills on May 31, 2019. One bans the use of conversion therapy on minors in Colorado. (Aaron Ontiveroz/MediaNews Group/The Denver Post via Getty Images)
The closely watched case centers on a law passed by Colorado in 2019 that bans what it describes as “conversion therapy.” About two dozen states have similar measures in place, and the outcome of this case could affect those.
Chiles’ lawyers have said the state law amounts to “viewpoint censorship,” arguing that “Colorado’s statute has undeniably silenced her.”
They have argued conversion therapy is an overly broad term and that the law puts therapists like Chiles at risk of thousands of dollars in fines and revocation of their licenses if they violate it.
Jim Campbell, chief legal counsel for Alliance Defending Freedom, a conservative advocacy group representing Chiles in litigation, told the Supreme Court on Tuesday that Chiles is being silenced and that those who want her help are unable to access it, due to the law.
“One of the things that’s so problematic about Colorado’s law is that it undermines the wellbeing of kids that are struggling with gender dysphoria, and so Colorado accepts that up to 90% of kids who struggle with that before puberty will work their way through it and realign their identity with their sex,” Campbell said Tuesday. “But this law says that if any of those children go to a licensed professional and say, I would like help realigning my identity with my sex, that licensed professional has to decline to help them.”
Campbell also said that anonymous complaints have been filed against Chiles in recent weeks that the state of Colorado is investigating, alleging that Chiles violated the law at the center of the case.
Meanwhile, Colorado Solicitor General Shannon Stevenson told the Supreme Court that no court has ever held that a law like Colorado’s implicates the First Amendment because it applies only to treatments, and does not bar a professional from voicing any viewpoint about that treatment to the patient.
“A state cannot lose its power to regulate the very professionals that it licenses just because they are using words,” Stevenson said. “A health care provider cannot be free to violate the standard of care just because they are using words. And a state cannot be required to let its vulnerable young people waste their time and money on an ineffective, harmful treatment. Just because that treatment is delivered through words.”
That aligns with previous statements from state officials. For example, Colorado Attorney General Phil Weiser has previously defended the law, which the state claims only bans therapists from performing treatments that have the predetermined outcome of converting a minor’s sexual orientation or gender identity.
“So-called conversion therapy is an inhumane and abusive practice overwhelmingly shown to harm young people,” Weiser said in a statement over the summer. “We have a compelling interest in protecting children from this dangerous pseudoscience.”
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Kaley Chiles, counselor in Colorado Springs, Colorado. (Alliance Defending Freedom, press release)
The case is not the first to come out of Colorado in recent years that looks at how the First Amendment intersects with identity and sexual orientation. The Supreme Court found 6-3 in June 2023 that Colorado could not force web designer Lorie Smith to create designs that conflicted with her faith, namely wedding website designs for gay couples.
Chiles v. Salazar has now become the next cultural touchpoint in the state. The Trump Department of Justice is backing Chiles in the lawsuit, along with the Association of Biblical Counselors and the Family Research Counsel.
Meanwhile, nearly 200 congressional Democrats and major medical and mental health institutions support the Colorado law.
A transgender rights supporter takes part in a rally outside of the U.S. Supreme Court as the justices hear arguments in a case on transgender health rights on Dec. 4, 2024, in Washington, D.C. (Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images)
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Attorney Kate Anderson of Alliance Defending Freedom told reporters ahead of oral arguments that the Colorado web designer’s case gave her optimism.
The conversion therapy law is “another example of Colorado trying to censor speech in a slightly different context, but very much related,” Anderson said. “And we’re hopeful that the Supreme Court will again give a bold vindication of free speech for everyone.”
