{"id":2495852,"date":"2025-10-07T18:54:02","date_gmt":"2025-10-07T22:54:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/gorsuch-acb-grill-colorado-on-gender-therapy-laws\/"},"modified":"2025-10-07T19:01:18","modified_gmt":"2025-10-07T23:01:18","slug":"gorsuch-acb-grill-colorado-on-gender-therapy-laws","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/gorsuch-acb-grill-colorado-on-gender-therapy-laws\/","title":{"rendered":"Gorsuch, ACB Grill Colorado On Gender Therapy Laws"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"&quot;\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">16<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fgorsuch-acb-grill-colorado-on-gender-therapy-laws%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=2495852&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><p>The recent U.S. Supreme Court oral arguments in *Chiles v. salazar* focused on Colorado&#8217;s <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/the-truth-about-a-ban-on-conversion-therapy-facing-supreme-court-scrutiny\/\" title=\"The truth about a ban on &#039;conversion ... facing Supreme Court scrutiny\">law banning conversion therapy<\/a> for minors, which therapist Kaley Chiles, represented by Alliance Defending Freedom, claims violates her First Amendment rights by restricting talk therapy related to sexual orientation and gender identity. Colorado&#8217;s Solicitor General Shannon Stevenson defended the law,asserting it regulates treatment,not speech,and aligns with professional standards of care,thus not triggering strict constitutional scrutiny.<\/p>\n<p>Though, Justices Neil Gorsuch and Amy Coney Barrett challenged Stevenson&#8217;s position, raising hypotheticals about whether states could similarly ban affirmative talk therapy supporting LGBTQ+ identities under the guise of medical standards.They questioned if rational basis review applies or if strict scrutiny is necessary, especially given competing medical opinions on the therapy&#8217;s safety and efficacy. Stevenson struggled to clearly address these questions, particularly about the state&#8217;s power amid medical uncertainty and the role of the &#8220;standard of care.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Barrett highlighted that diffrent states, like Tennessee and Colorado, pick opposing stances on gender-affirming care, questioning how courts should evaluate such divergent laws. The tensions revealed potential inconsistencies in how free speech and medical standards intersect in <a href=\"https:\/\/amzn.to\/3YuVZYV\" >professional regulations surrounding conversion therapy<\/a> and gender identity treatments.  <\/p>\n<p class=\"readmore\">\n    <button onclick=\"showReadMore()\" id=\"readmorebtn\">Read more&#8230;<\/button>\n<\/p>\n<hr id=\"line\">\n<span id=\"more\"><\/p>\n<div>\n<p>The Democrat-led state of Colorado seemingly attempted to dodge addressing a key point raised in a pivotal free speech case before the U.S. Supreme Court on Tuesday. And it&rsquo;s clear Associate Justices Neil Gorsuch and Amy Coney Barrett were having none of it.<\/p>\n<p>The moment came during <a href=\"https:\/\/www.c-span.org\/program\/public-affairs-event\/supreme-court-hears-case-on-colorados-conversion-therapy-ban\/664534\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">oral arguments<\/a> in <em>Chiles v. Salazar<\/em>, a case <a href=\"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/2025\/09\/30\/the-federalists-guide-to-the-2025-supreme-court-term\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">centered<\/a> on Colorado therapist Kaley Chiles&rsquo; challenge to a state law prohibiting professionals such as herself from providing &ldquo;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/christian-u-s-soccer-player-thrown-under-the-bus-by-lesbian-teammate-as-olympics-get-underway\/\" title=\"Christian U.S. Soccer Player Thrown Under the Bus by Lesbian Teammate as Olympics Get Underway\">conversion therapy&#038;rdquo<\/a>; to children suffering from issues related to sexuality and gender dysphoria. Represented by Alliance Defending Freedom, Chiles, a Christian, alleges that the statute infringes upon her ability to engage in related talk therapy with her minor clients and violates her First Amendment rights.<\/p>\n<p>During her opening statement defending the law, Colorado Solicitor General Shannon Stevenson claimed that &ldquo;conversion therapy&rdquo; &ldquo;does not work and carries great risk of harm.&rdquo;  She further argued that the law &ldquo;governs only treatments,&rdquo; and thus &ldquo;does not interfere with any First Amendment interest.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;[B]ecause Colorado&rsquo;s law regulates treatments only, and because it enforces the professional standard of care, the law falls squarely into the reasonable regulation of professional conduct that does not trigger First Amendment [strict] scrutiny,&rdquo; Stevenson said.<\/p>\n<p>When given the opportunity to question the Centennial State solicitor general, Gorsuch posed a &ldquo;mirror image&rdquo; hypothetical, in which he noted how other states could potentially pass laws similar to Colorado&rsquo;s that instead prohibit licensed therapists from using talk therapy that &ldquo;affirmed&rdquo; minors&rsquo; pursuit of homosexuality.<\/p>\n<p>He specifically probed whether, under Colorado&rsquo;s argument, a state could &ldquo;forbid a regulated licensed professional from affirming homosexuality if that were consistent with the then-prevailing &lsquo;standard of care&#8217;&rdquo; and &ldquo;so likewise, if the prevailing standard of care were to change or solidify that this sort of talk therapy is beneficial to minors, or at least not harmful to minors, then a state could pass a mirror image statute to Colorado&rsquo;s that prohibits any attempt to affirm changes of gender identity or sexual orientation, and that would be subject to mere <a href=\"https:\/\/www.law.cornell.edu\/wex\/rational_basis_test\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">rational basis review<\/a>&rdquo; as opposed to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.law.cornell.edu\/wex\/strict_scrutiny\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">strict scrutiny<\/a>? <\/p>\n<p>While Stevenson initially appeared to agree with Gorsuch&rsquo;s premise, she went on to argue that &ldquo;the fact that there are words involved [in the therapy] doesn&rsquo;t make a difference.&rdquo; Citing the high court&rsquo;s recent <a href=\"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/2025\/06\/18\/supreme-court-deems-laws-prohibiting-trans-surgeries-for-minors-as-constitutional\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\"><em>U.S. v. Skrmetti<\/em> decision<\/a> upholding a Tennessee law banning certain trans procedures for minors, she said states &ldquo;have the power to regulate even in the face of&rdquo; uncertainty within the medical community, and that the recognized &ldquo;&lsquo;standard of care&rsquo; could change there, and the legislature can act to change that.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p>The seemingly convoluted answer sparked an extensive back-and-forth between Gorsuch and Stevenson, in which the former attempted to pin the latter down on what exactly she was trying to argue:<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p>Gorsuch: So, even cases where &lsquo;medical uncertainty&rsquo; exists, you think that the state could pass such a law prohibiting ex-ante speech that would affirm gender identity changes or sexual orientation changes or homosexuality?<\/p>\n<p>Stevenson: I don&rsquo;t think you have to reach that question in this case because here &mdash;<\/p>\n<p>Gorsuch: I&rsquo;m asking about the logic of your argument. I think you just said states can regulate even in the absence of medical consensus in this fashion. Is that right?<\/p>\n<p>Stevenson: Where there are no words involved and no First Amendment issue raised, and &mdash;<\/p>\n<p>Gorsuch: No &hellip; we&rsquo;re talking about speech and we&rsquo;re talking about &hellip; talk therapy. That&rsquo;s what I want to get at. And I think you&rsquo;re saying that if there&rsquo;s medical consensus, a state surely could pass mirror image laws. And I think you&rsquo;re saying, but I want to make sure, that even in cases where there&rsquo;s medical uncertainty, a state could so regulate?<\/p>\n<p>Stevenson: You could reach a holding in this case that said, &lsquo;Yes, treatment is treatment, and &hellip; it doesn&rsquo;t matter whether it&rsquo;s &hellip; consistent with the standard of care or not.&rsquo; We would urge you to reach a narrower holding in this case &mdash;<\/p>\n<p>Gorsuch: I understand that, but I&rsquo;m asking you to answer my question. &hellip; [T]his court has many times said when there&rsquo;s medical uncertainty, we defer to state judgements. And I think you&rsquo;re saying, that &lsquo;yes.&rsquo; I think the logic of your position has to be &lsquo;yes.&rsquo; &hellip;<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>Stevenson&rsquo;s unsuccessful attempt to adequately address Gorsuch&rsquo;s questions prompted Barrett to interject and press the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/scotus-hears-arguments-on-new-york-gun-law\/\" title=\"SCOTUS Hears Arguments On New York Gun ...\">state solicitor general<\/a> on the point of &ldquo;medical uncertainty.&rdquo; The junior justice highlighted potential &ldquo;competing&rdquo; views within the medical community about the safety and efficacy of conversion talk therapy and so-called &ldquo;gender affirming care.&rdquo; <\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;Can a state pick a side? &hellip; I want to be very clear. It&rsquo;s not that the medical community says, &lsquo;We  just don&rsquo;t know.&rsquo; It&rsquo;s that there are competing strands, and some states like, say, Tennessee, which was the state at issue in <em>Skrmetti<\/em>, pick one side. Colorado picks another side.&rdquo; Barrett said. &ldquo;Your position is that rational basis applies?&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p>Stevenson appeared to try to wiggle out of the question. She argued that Colorado&rsquo;s position is that &ldquo;the standard of care is important&rdquo; but was cut off by Barrett, who asked that she answer the question. <\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;No, our view is that would not be the right rule here,&rdquo; Stevenson said. &ldquo;One, because that&rsquo;s not consistent with the history and tradition identified in[[<em><a href=\"https:\/\/www.oyez.org\/cases\/2017\/16-1140\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">NIFLA v. Becerra<\/a><\/em>], and two, because the reason why that history is important and the reason why the standard of care is important is because it&rsquo;s a confirmation that the state is not actually trying to shut down viewpoints &hellip; &ldquo;<\/p>\n<p>Seemingly befuddled by Stevenson&rsquo;s confusing response, Barrett further probed the state solicitor general about why she doesn&rsquo;t believe the &ldquo;standard of care&rdquo; question &ldquo;isn&rsquo;t relevant there,&rdquo; seemingly referring to her previous hypothetical about states &ldquo;picking sides&rdquo; amid competing medical opinions.<\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;Wouldn&rsquo;t that be a situation in which Colorado is essentially &hellip; looking at expert evidence and saying that, &lsquo;We think this is what&rsquo;s appropriate. That we shouldn&rsquo;t have this kind of talk therapy.&rsquo; And Tennessee is choosing a different one as a matter of its state law, or am I not understanding that correctly?&rdquo; Barrett asked.<\/p>\n<p>Stevenson replied, &ldquo;What I&rsquo;m saying is, where there is a First Amendment issue raised and the state can show we&rsquo;re regulating a treatment and we&rsquo;re regulating consistent with the standard of care, there is a confirmation, a security, that the court can have that there is no other motive going on to suppress viewpoints or expression.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;So, Colorado&rsquo;s law would trigger rational basis, but Tennessee&rsquo;s hypothetical law would be <a href=\"https:\/\/www.law.cornell.edu\/wex\/strict_scrutiny\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">strict scrutiny<\/a>?&rdquo; Barrett asked, homing in on Colorado&rsquo;s <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/sen-paul-pens-op-ed-slamming-biden-executive-overreach\/\" title=\"Sen. Paul pens op-ed slamming Biden executive overreach\">apparent double standard<\/a> in which prospective laws barring therapists from affirming minors&rsquo; pro-gay\/trans thoughts would be subject to a more heightened form of review by courts than laws like Colorado&rsquo;s.<\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;If it were against the standards of care,&rdquo; Stevenson responded. <\/p>\n<hr>\n<p>      Shawn Fleetwood is a staff writer for The Federalist and a graduate of the University of Mary Washington. He previously served as a state content writer for Convention of States Action and his work has been featured in numerous outlets, including RealClearPolitics, RealClearHealth, and Conservative Review. Follow him on Twitter @ShawnFleetwood<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Colorado dodged key free speech issue in Supreme Court case<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":539,"featured_media":2495853,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/Gorsuch-Barrett.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[33651],"tags":[58053,6024,64789,12186],"class_list":["post-2495852","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-the-western-journal","tag-acb","tag-colorado","tag-gender-therapy","tag-gorsuch"],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/Gorsuch-Barrett.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2495852","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/539"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2495852"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2495852\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2495861,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2495852\/revisions\/2495861"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2495853"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2495852"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2495852"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2495852"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}