The Supreme Court delivered a major First Amendment ruling on Tuesday.
In a decisive 8-1 opinion, the justices sided with a Christian counselor who challenged a Colorado law that she said infringed on her right to free speech.
The case, Chiles v. Salazar, centers on whether a state can regulate conversations between counselors and clients regarding sexuality, The Hill reported.
Justice Neil Gorsuch wrote the majority opinion, and Associate Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson was the lone dissenter.
He said a lower court used an inappropriate standard when it previously upheld the law.
At issue was a 2019 Colorado ban on counseling practices aimed at challenging a child’s expressed sexual orientation or gender identity.
Violations of the law can lead to fines and put licenses in jeopardy for counselors.
The state argued the law only seeks to regulate conduct, not speech.
But the country’s court disagreed on Tuesday morning.
🚨 In an 8-1 vote, the Supreme Court holds that Colorado’s ban on “conversion therapy,” as applied to petitioner’s talk therapy, violates the First Amendment because it constitutes viewpoint discrimination pic.twitter.com/NkDo4Djsb6
— SCOTUS Wire (@scotus_wire) March 31, 2026
Gorsuch wrote that the law attempts to silence a particular viewpoint.
“Fortunately, that is not the world the First Amendment envisions for us,” he wrote.
The court found the Colorado law sought to regulate speech. The case was sent back to the lower court for another review.
The lawsuit was brought by Kaley Chiles, a licensed counselor in Colorado, who argued the state was censoring her private conversations with minor clients.
Advertise with The Western Journal and reach millions of highly engaged readers, while supporting our work. Advertise Today.
