Colorado conversion therapist is allowed to proceed, SCOTUS rules
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What is the Supreme Court's ruling on conversion therapy in Colorado?
The Supreme Court released its opinion on one of the most controversial cases of the term regarding a Colorado law that banned LGBTQ plus conversion therapy for minors. The high court's ruling effectively throws the case back to a lower court, which is tasked with examining whether or not the law infringed on the free speech rights of Kaylee Childs, a licensed counselor with a master's degree in clinical mental health, who said she practices from a Christian perspective. Hello and welcome to USA Today's The Excerpt. I'm Dana Taylor. Today is Wednesday, April 1st, 2026. Joining me to walk through what this decision will mean not only for Childs, but for Christian counselors in the two dozen other states that have an active ban on conversion therapy for minors is USA Today Supreme Court correspondent Maureen Grabe.
Maureen, thank you so much for being here. Hi, thanks for having me. Maureen, what was the basis of this Colorado dispute?
Well, the Christian counselor that you mentioned, she was challenging the constitutionality of this Colorado law that prohibits licensed mental health workers from providing conversion therapy to minors. And the state defines conversion therapy as an attempt to, quote, change an individual's sexual orientation or gender identity to including efforts to change behaviors or gender expressions or to eliminate or reduce sexual or romantic attraction or feelings toward individuals of the same sex. And the main issue here was that she was saying that the law allows her to help someone transition to another gender or to help them be comfortable as a gay person. But if she wants to counsel someone to be, as she put it, comfortable in the sex that they were born in to not transition, then that is not allowed under the law.
How does the Colorado law affect free speech rights for counselors?
So the question was whether this law then restricts her free speech rights.
What does this eight to one ruling essentially do?
Well, the court did say that the law violates her free speech rights under the First Amendment. And anytime that happens, that triggers an extra level of scrutiny from courts to decide whether the law is valid or not. And it's a very high bar to meet in situations like this. So the upshot of this is that Colorado is not going to be able to enforce this law against this counselor for the kind of counseling that she says she wants to practice.
As I mentioned, Colorado isn't the only state to prohibit conversion therapy. What will be the immediate impact of this ruling?
Yeah, you're right. It's not the only state to have laws like this, and it's not the only law that is being challenged. There are other challenges to other laws in the works, and the lower courts that are handling those challenges, they're going to be taking their cue from this ruling, which wasn't about whether the law can be upheld, the regulation is valid in all circumstances. It was whether It could be applied to the kind of counseling that she says she wants to do. And if the situation is similar in other challenges, then they will also get a similar outcome to this one.
Maureen, Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson cast the one dissenting vote here.
What are the implications of the 8-1 ruling for LGBTQ+ youth?
Why was she in opposition to this ruling?
She basically took the side of Colorado, which was arguing that states should be able to regulate medical care, whether that care comes in the form of speech therapy or surgery, that it's not a direct implication on someone's free speech. It's an indirect implication on someone's speech. And so the First Amendment rules shouldn't apply to medical care regulation.
More than a dozen mental health and professional medical organizations also weighed in here, right?
Yeah. And they said that trying to change someone's sexual orientation or their gender identity is not legitimate therapeutic treatment. And not only does it not help, but actually harm someone.
The Justice Department supported Childs, the Christian therapist, in this case. What did they say?
Yeah, it was interesting that the Justice Department got involved because this involved a state law, not a federal law, so a dispute they could have stayed out of.
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Chapters
7 chapters
1
What is the Supreme Court's ruling on conversion therapy in Colorado?
0:05–1:55
2
How does the Colorado law affect free speech rights for counselors?
1:55–3:21
3
What are the implications of the 8-1 ruling for LGBTQ+ youth?
3:21–4:42
4
What was Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson's dissenting opinion?
4:42–6:20
5
How did mental health organizations respond to the ruling?
6:20–7:30
6
What arguments did Colorado's Attorney General present?
7:30–9:03
7
How might this ruling influence future legal challenges regarding LGBTQ+ rights?
9:03–10:14
Speakers
2 identifiedMore from The Excerpt
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