Liberty Counsel Receives $950,000 Settlement for Counseling Ban Victory

On February 2, 2023, the Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that the Tampa ordinance that prohibited licensed counselors from providing voluntary talk therapy to minors seeking help to reduce or eliminate their unwanted same-sex attractions, behaviors, or identity, is unconstitutional under the First Amendment.

This ruling is based on Liberty Counsel’s earlier victory in Otto v. City of Boca Raton in which the Eleventh Circuit previously ruled that similar bans preventing counselors from helping their clients in Palm Beach County and the City of Boca Raton were also unconstitutional viewpoint restrictions on speech under the First Amendment.

In October 2019, federal Judge William F. Jung issued an order granting summary judgment to Liberty Counsel in its suit to invalidate the Tampa ordinance that prohibited licensed counselors from providing voluntary talk therapy to minors seeking help to reduce or eliminate their unwanted same-sex attractions, behaviors, or identity. The District Court in Vazzo ruled that the ordinance seeking to regulate counselors was a statewide concern and beyond the authority of local governments. In reaching this decision, the lower court did not decide the First Amendment claim. Today’s ruling permanently strikes down the ordinance under the First Amendment.

In Judge Jung’s ruling, he refuted the made-up term “conversion therapy” that activists and the media frequently use. In his order he stated, “Broadly stated, the Ordinance bars therapy within the City by medical doctors and mental health professionals that seeks to assist a minor patient in a goal to change gender expression or to change sexual orientation/attraction. These two subjects are separate and distinct, but related. The cases have generically referred to these two subjects as ‘SOCE’ or sexual orientation change efforts. The Ordinance uses the term ‘conversion therapy.’ Neither term is entirely accurate.”

In November 2019, the City of Tampa appealed the judge's ruling that granted summary judgment to Liberty Counsel, thereby invalidating the Tampa ordinance that prohibited licensed counselors from providing voluntary talk therapy to minors seeking help to reduce or eliminate their unwanted same-sex attractions, behaviors, or identity.

Liberty Counsel Founder and Chairman Mat Staver said, “Counselors and clients now have the freedom to choose the counsel of their choice and be free of political censorship from government-mandated speech as a result of this victory. The government has no business eavesdropping inside the counseling rooms, and the city has no authority to enact a local counseling regulation. Any city that tries to enact such a ban will face the same consequences.”

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