The Supreme Court decided Monday to hear a challenge to a Colorado law banning "conversion therapy" for LGBTQ+ youth and young people questioning their sexualities or gender identities.
The challenge to the 2019 law came from Christian therapist Kaley Chiles, who argued that its restriction on mental health care providers administering conversion therapy to people under the age of 18 violates her First Amendment right to free speech. Both a federal judge and a panel of the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals in Denver previously ruled to uphold the ban.
A ruling from the Supreme Court could have a nationwide impact. More than 20 states have banned the practice, which presses LGBTQ+ minors into disavowing their sexualities or identifying with the gender they were assigned at birth.
Critics of conversion therapy liken it to "torture." In a 2020 report, Victor Madrigal-Borloz, the United Nations' independent expert on sexual orientation and gender identity, called for the "extremely harmful" practice to be banned globally, citing the "pain and suffering" often inflicted on its targets.
The court will hear oral argument and decide the case in it's next term, which begins in October.
In her petition, lawyers for Chiles say that the therapist frequently has clients who seek her counseling over concerns about their sexualities and gender identities and a belief that "their faith and their relationship with God establishes the foundation upon which to understand their identity and desires."
"The government has no business censoring private conversations between clients and counselors, nor should a counselor be used as a tool to impose the government’s biased views on her clients," Kristen Waggoner, the president of the conservative Christian advocacy group representing Chiles, Alliance Defending Freedom, told NBC News in a statement.
Colorado officials argue, however, that the law regulates physicians' conduct — not speech. They note in their brief that neither of the state's regulatory boards have received a complaint about Chiles' counseling nor have taken any action against her because of it.
The “First Amendment allows states to regulate the professional practice of conversion therapy, like other unsafe and ineffective health care treatments, to protect minor patients from substandard professional care," lawyers for Colorado wrote.
The Supreme Court has routinely denied previous challenges to conversion therapy bans, the most recent incident being in December 2023, when it rejected a challenge to a Washington state law.
The Alliance Defending Freedom also represented a Colorado web designer who challenged a state anti-discrimination law because she did not want to create websites for same-sex weddings. The Supreme Court ruled in her favor in 2023.
