US Supreme Court overturns Colorado ban on conversion therapy

The United States Supreme Court overturned Colorado's ban on conversion therapy. The vote was 8 to 1. The court held that the ban infringed on the First Amendment. The decision also invalidates similar bans in 22 other states.

Conversion therapy is a set of practices that attempt to change a person's sexual orientation or gender identity. A state ban makes those practices unlawful for licensed professionals or in defined settings, depending on how the statute is written. The First Amendment protects freedom of speech and, in some cases, the speech of professionals. The majority treated Colorado's restriction as a violation of that protection.

An 8 to 1 vote means eight justices formed the majority and one dissented. The report does not name the justices or quote the opinions. Overturning a state law means the statute can no longer be enforced. Extending that result to 22 other states means those states' similar bans fall with Colorado's, because the constitutional rule now applies to them as well.

The Supreme Court is the highest court in the United States and has the last word on the meaning of the Constitution in cases it decides. A ruling on a state professional regulation can reach every state with a comparable law. Twenty-two is the number of other states whose similar bans the decision invalidates. The account does not list those states by name.

Licensing rules for counselors and therapists are normally a state matter. This case moves the limit on those rules into federal constitutional law. States that had no ban are not described as newly required to allow or forbid anything beyond the invalidation of existing bans. The practical effect stated in the report is that Colorado's ban and the similar bans in 22 other states no longer stand.

The court closed the Colorado case with an 8 to 1 decision on March 31. Conversion therapy bans of the kind Colorado enacted are unconstitutional under the ruling. Twenty-two other states lose similar laws at the same time. The dissent is recorded only by the single vote against the majority.