US Supreme Court Limits States’ Power to Ban Conversion Therapy Through Speech Restrictions
The US Supreme Court has ruled that states cannot ban conversion therapy for minors by restricting what therapists and licensed professionals are allowed to discuss with clients, in an 8–1 decision handed down on 31 March. The ruling is expected to significantly alter how conversion therapy laws are applied across the United States.
Writing for the majority, Justice Neil Gorsuch said: “The First Amendment stands as a shield against any effort to enforce orthodoxy in thought or speech in this country,” concluding that states cannot rely on professional licensing rules to control conversations between therapists and clients.
The case, Chiles v. Salazar, was brought by Colorado therapist Kaley Chiles, who argued that she should be permitted to offer faith-based counselling to minors seeking to lessen feelings of same-sex attraction or become more comfortable in their bodies.
Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson was the only justice to dissent. The ruling is being viewed as a significant victory for the Trump administration, which supported the legal challenge.
The court’s decision applies only to talk therapy, meaning states still have authority to regulate medical interventions such as hormones or surgery.
It follows a 2025 ruling in which the court upheld state bans on certain gender-affirming treatments for minors.
According to The Washington Post, Chiles has said that her goal is not to convert LGBTQ+ young people, but to help those who want to reduce what they see as unwanted attractions.
In her filing, she wrote that her clients “believe their faith and their relationships with God supersede romantic attractions and that God determines their identity according to what He has revealed in the Bible rather than their attractions or perceptions determining their identity”.
Conversion therapy in the US
According to estimates from the Williams Institute, around 698,000 LGBT adults in the United States have undergone conversion therapy, including 350,000 who experienced it during adolescence.
That remains the case despite a 2019 Stonewall Anniversary Poll showing that 56 per cent of Americans believed conversion therapy for LGBTQ children should be illegal.
The same poll also found that 64 per cent of respondents disagreed that a medical professional should be allowed to withhold elective care from an LGBTQ+ patient because of religious objections.
