The Supreme Court Got Its Fourth Justice To Hear Challenge To Conversion Therapy Ban

Last updated: 2025/03/11 at 1:58 AM

The Supreme Court on Monday announced that it would hear an attempt to overturn Colorado’s ban of conversion therapy for minors.

Conversion therapy attempts to change LGBT patients’ gender identity or orientation, and leading medical organizations have long criticized the discredited practice as deeply harmful, especially for young people. Dozens of states and Washington D.C. have similar bans.

The Court brushed up against state conversion therapy bans as recently as 2023. Then, Justices Clarence Thomas, Samuel Alito and Brett Kavanaugh said they would have taken up the case, Thomas and Alito arguing that the law infringes on speech rights. That group has now found at least its fourth, as it takes the votes of four justices to hear a case. That shift, in this climate, is ominous.

The case was brought by Kaley Chiles, a professional counselor, backed by the Alliance Defending Freedom, a now infamous right-wing law firm that has pushed many major culture war cases at the Supreme Court. Chiles claims that the ban infringes on her freedom of speech as a Christian who “believes clients can accept the bodies that God has given them and find peace.” The right-wing Supreme Court majority has often acted aggressively in defense of supposed Christian persecution.

Colorado Attorney General Philip Weiser (D) called conversion therapy “unsafe and ineffective,” and defended the state’s right to protect patients from substandard treatment.

Adding a layer of irony, the right has waged constant battle in recent years against gender affirming care for minors under the auspices of protecting them from activist and ideological health care providers.

This case is a clear outgrowth of the greater anti-trans movement, though; in Chiles’ brief, her lawyers bemoan that conversion therapy bans leave “detransitioners — those who adopted a transgender identity but now identify with their biological sex — with no counseling support whatsoever in much of the United States.” While detransitioning is rare, right-wing media often highlights these individuals as “proof” of the harm of gender affirming care.

That it only took a year and a half for Thomas, Alito and Kavanaugh to recruit at least one other justice to their side speaks to the pitch of the anti-trans movement, particularly after Donald Trump’s reelection on a platform that was particularly fixated on rolling back protections for trans youth.