SCOTUS To Decide Future of Counseling Bans

Liberty Counsel had filed an amicus brief urging the High Court to take the case. Liberty Counsel intends to file an additional amicus brief recommending that SCOTUS end the profound and harmful impact counseling bans are having on the First Amendment rights of licensed counselors and the mental health of minors.

Kaley Chiles is a licensed mental health counselor in Colorado who treats clients with issues related to addiction, trauma, gender confusion, and sexual attraction. However, a Colorado law violates Chiles’ free speech rights by preventing her from helping minors change their behaviors, sexual orientation, or gender expressions even when the client wishes to do so. The law authorizes fines of up to $5,000 per violation and suspension or even revocation of the counselor’s license.

The issue of talk therapy has circulated in the courts for more than ten years with four different Appeals Courts currently divided 2-2 over whether counseling bans are valid. In 2023, the Supreme Court declined a similar challenge to a Washington state counseling ban, but Justices Clarence Thomas, Samuel Alito, and Brett Kavanaugh all indicated that they would have reviewed the case. Justice Thomas noted that these bans have “silenced one side of this debate” and are viewpoint “discrimination in its purest form.” He then rightfully predicted that the issue “will come before the Court again” and stated at that time the Court must decide “what the First Amendment requires.”

Now that counseling bans will indeed get a full review by SCOTUS, the issue will be decided of whether these types of laws violate the First Amendment rights of free speech and religion by licensed counselors.

As Liberty Counsel noted in its previous brief, talk therapy helps minors with unwanted same-sex attractions and is protected speech rather than conduct the state can regulate. Colorado, in order to censor dissenting viewpoints, “conspicuously ignored” studies that show talk therapy for unwanted confusion and same-sex attractions is safe and effective.

“…mental health counseling that helps a client align their feelings and behaviors with their religious beliefs and biological reality—unlike invasive medical procedures involving drugs and surgeries—is First Amendment-protected speech,” wrote Liberty Counsel.

Liberty Counsel has represented licensed counselors who have used talk therapy to help many people. Through Liberty Counsel’s efforts, city ordinances in Florida and Iowa banning this type of counseling have been struck down or repealed preserving the free speech rights of counselors so they can help their clients to reduce or eliminate unwanted same-sex attractions, behaviors, or gender confusion. In both Otto v. City of Boca Raton and Vazzo v. City of Tampa, the Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals struck down city ordinances that prohibited licensed counselors from providing voluntary talk therapy to minors seeking help to eliminate unwanted same-sex attractions or gender confusion because they were unconstitutional under the First Amendment.

Liberty Counsel Founder and Chairman Mat Staver said, “Laws that restrict only one viewpoint regarding ‘gender identity’ violate the First Amendment. Talk therapy is speech, and the government has no authority to restrict that speech to just one viewpoint. All counseling bans nationwide must be struck down so that people can get the counseling they need. Counselors and clients should have the freedom to choose the counsel of their choice and be free of government censorship.”