A Christian counsellor who’s also known as a “talk therapist” has had a major victory in America’s highest court.
The US Supreme Court has struck down a Colorado anti-conversion law that banned licensed professionals from engaging in talk therapy with children — who are struggling with their gender or sexuality.
In an 8-1 decision, the court concluded that Colorado’s ban unlawfully regulated the speech of devout Christian mental health counsellor Kaley Chiles who’s based in Colorado Springs.
It accused the state of prescribing what views she may and may not express, in violation of her First Amendment right to free speech.
WHAT KALEY CHILES’S JOB INVOLVES
Throughout her career, Kaley has worked with clients to address addiction, trauma, and personality disorders.
Additionally, she counsels individuals experiencing eating disorders, gender dysphoria, and concerns related to sexuality.
Her practice is informed by her faith.
This involves counselling clients who feel same-sex attraction or are at a crossroads regarding their current gender identity.
TALK THERAPIST LETS HER PATIENTS GUIDE HER APPROACH TO CARE
Kaley does not predetermine how to counsel any particular patient.
The Supreme Court’s majority opinion pointed out in detail that she does not impose her values or beliefs on her patients.
Instead, she lets her patients guide her approach to care.
Her clients come to her with a variety of personal goals.
GOALS OF HER CLIENTS
Some seek freedom from sexual behaviors such as pornography use.
Others wish to become more comfortable with their biological sex.
These are private, deeply intimate matters.
Kaley has to build trust with her clients.
MANY OF KALEY’S PATIENTS ARE CHRISTIANS
Together, they fully explore their issues, and she seeks to help them achieve their goals.
Many of Kaley’s patients share her Christian faith.
In fact, it’s often why they seek help from her, as opposed to other counselors with a secular worldview.
They want counselling that is informed by, and respects their common Christian convictions.
COLORADO’S ANTI-CONVERSION LAW
The state of Colorado has tried to force its way into these private counsellor-client conversations — in violation of Kaley’s freedom of speech.
In 2019, it passed the Minor Conversion Therapy Law that bans mental health practitioners from engaging in conversion therapy with minor patients.
The bill defines “conversion therapy” broadly to include “efforts to change an individual’s sexual orientation, including efforts to change behaviours or gender expressions, or to eliminate or reduce sexual or romantic attraction or feelings toward individuals.”
Since the passage of this law, Ms. Chiles has avoided conversations with minors that could be interpreted as conversion therapy, effectively limiting the services that she could provide.
KALEY CHILES CHALLENGES THE COLORADO LAW.
In September 2022, Kaley Chiles challenged Colorado’s law.
She sought a preliminary injunction, arguing that the state’s censoring of private counselling conversations violated the First Amendment’s guarantees of free speech and religious exercise.
The counsellor lost that case in the district court, so she appealed the verdict to a three-judge Court of Appeals, only to have her claim struck down again by 2-1.
The appellate court reasoned that Ms. Chiles’ practice represented professional conduct rather than purely free speech.
Because of the court’s determination that her work was not speech, it applied rational basis review, a lower legal standard that allows courts to uphold a law so long as it is rationally related to a legitimate government interest.
JUDGE’S SCATHING DISSENT
Judge Harris Hartz issued a scathing dissent.
He argued that talk therapy is speech protected by the First Amendment and accused the two other appellate court judges of inconsistency, bordering on hypocrisy.
He stated: “What if the shoe were on the other foot?”
“It was not terribly long ago that the mental-health establishment declared homosexuality to be a mental disorder.”
Judge Hartz concluded that perhaps the pendulum of the psychiatric community had swung too drastically in the opposite direction.
CASE HEADS TO AMERICA’S HIGHEST COURT
Kaley Chiles remained undeterred and petitioned the US Supreme Court.
During oral arguments, there was heated debate among the justices about whether rational-basis review was appropriate.
James Campbell of Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF) stated that Colorado’s ban wrongfully censors “widely held views on debated moral, religious and scientific questions.”
“Aside from this law and recent ones like it, Colorado hasn’t identified any similar viewpoint-based bans on counselling,” Mr. Campbell said in his opening comments.
COLORADO UNLAWFULLY REGULATED SPEECH OF COUNSELLOR
The Supreme Court concluded that Colorado’s ban unlawfully regulated the speech of Ms. Chiles.
Justice Neil Gorsuch wrote that the nation’s highest court found “the lower courts had failed to apply sufficiently rigorous First Amendment scrutiny in this case.”
“While the First Amendment protects many and varied forms of expression, the spoken word is perhaps the quintessential form of protected speech.”
“And that is exactly the kind of expression in which Ms. Chiles seeks to engage.”
“Colorado’s law does not just regulate the content of Ms. Chiles’s speech.”
“It goes a step further, prescribing what views she may and may not express.”
“THE FIRST AMENDMENT ACTS AS A SHIELD TO DEFEND FREEDOM OF SPEECH”
Justice Gorsuch noted that “the First Amendment stands as a shield against any effort to enforce orthodoxy in thought or speech in this country.”
“Any law that suppresses speech based on viewpoint represents an ‘egregious’ assault on both of those commitments.”
The opinion reverses the Court of Appeals’ decision and sends the case back for further legal proceedings.
COUNSELLOR’S RESPONSE TO THE RULING
In response to the ruling, Kaley Chiles said: “When my young clients come to me for counsel, they often want to discuss issues of gender and sexuality.”
“I look forward to being able to help them when they choose the goal of growing comfortable with their bodies. “
“Counsellors walking alongside these young people shouldn’t be limited to promoting state-approved goals like gender transition, which often leads to harmful drugs and surgeries.”
“The Supreme Court’s ruling is a victory for counsellors and, more importantly, kids and families everywhere.”
RESPONSE OF KALEY’S LEGAL TEAM
“The US Supreme Court’s decision is a significant win for free speech, common sense, and families desperate to help their children,” said ADF’s James Campbell.
“States cannot silence voluntary conversations that help young people seeking to grow comfortable with their bodies,” he asserted.
After a justice noted there had been “six years of no enforcement” of the law, Mr Campbell countered that the ban had a “credible threat of enforcement” and there had been anonymous complaints wrongly accusing Ms. Chiles of “violating” the ban.
ADF declared: “This Supreme Court win is monumental, as this precedent will help protect counsellors from similarly unconstitutional laws in 20 states and over 100 localities across the US.
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