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Supreme Court Takes Up Colorado Conversion-Therapy Ban in Free-Speech Test

The justices will weigh whether Colorado's limits on conversion therapy regulate professional care or censor therapists' speech.

Masterpiece Cakeshop owner Jack Phillips talks with a customer following a Supreme Court ruling on June 4, 2018 in Lakewood, Colo. A divided Supreme Court absolved the Colorado baker of discrimination for refusing to create a custom wedding cake for a same-sex couple, ruling that the state exhibited "religious hostility" against him. Usp News Supreme Court Cake Shop Decision A Usa Co
In this December 2022 photo, people stand in front of the U.S. Supreme Court demonstrating over the case of a Colorado company that refused to create websites for same-sex weddings despite a state anti-discrimination law. Colorado and LGBTQ rights will again go before the high court on Tuesday, Oct. 7, 2025, in oral arguments about the legality of conversion therapy for minors, a controversial treatment first outlawed by California.
Twenty-three states and Washington, D.C., have conversion therapy bans on the books. An additional four states and Puerto Rico have made efforts to limit the practice.
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Overview

  • Oral arguments in Chiles v. Salazar are set for Tuesday, with a Colorado Springs counselor challenging the state's 2019 law as a First Amendment violation.
  • Kaley Chiles, represented by the Alliance Defending Freedom, says the ban chills her counseling speech and amounts to viewpoint discrimination in sessions with minors.
  • Colorado Attorney General Phil Weiser defends the statute as a patient-protection rule for licensed professionals, citing broad medical consensus that conversion therapy is harmful.
  • A federal district court and the 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals upheld the law, and a ruling now could affect similar restrictions in more than 20 states and reshape regulation of professional advice.
  • The Trump administration will support Chiles at argument, continuing a broader clash over LGBTQ protections that has repeatedly placed Colorado before the Supreme Court.