chiles v. salazar:
why it matters now
UPDATED 4/1/2026
The Supreme Court rules in the Chiles v. Salazar case on 3/31/2026.
The Supreme Court ruled 8-1 that Colorado's ban on conversion therapy for minors, as applied to licensed counselor Kaley Chiles, violates the First Amendment, finding it restricts speech based on viewpoint. The ruling reverses and remands the lower court decision, mandating "strict scrutiny" for restrictions on therapy-related speech.
This isn't just about "conversion therapy." It's about whether therapists should have unlimited freedom to practice unproven, potentially harmful techniques on our children, behind closed doors, without accountability, all in the name of "free speech."
What Actually Happened
In 2019, Colorado passed the Minor Conversion Therapy Law (MCTL). The law was straightforward: it prohibited licensed therapists from practicing "conversion therapy" on minors, meaning they couldn't try to change a child's sexual orientation or how they see themselves.
The law didn't apply to pastors, youth ministers, or religious counselors. It only regulated licensed mental health professionals, the same professionals who already have to follow professional standards to keep their licenses.
A therapist named Kaley Chiles, represented by the Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF), challenged this law. She claimed that because her work involves talking to clients, and talking is protected by the First Amendment, Colorado couldn't tell her what she can or can't say in therapy sessions.
The Supreme Court agreed with her. In an 8-1 decision authored by Justice Neil Gorsuch, the Court held that Colorado's law, as applied to talk therapy, censors speech based on viewpoint. Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson was the sole dissenter. She read her dissent from the bench, warning that the ruling "opens a dangerous can of worms" by undermining states' long-standing authority to regulate medical care.
The ruling did not strike down Colorado's law entirely. It did not declare conversion therapy safe or effective. But it sent a clear signal: states now face a much higher bar to enforce these protections.
Why This Case Should Matter To Every Parent
Let's be clear about what actually happened here. The Court ruled that talk therapy is primarily "speech," which gives therapists broad First Amendment protections when it comes to what they say in sessions with your child.
Think about what that means in practice going forward.
If therapy is just "speech," then state medical boards will have a much harder time regulating what therapists do or say to patients. That doesn't just affect "conversion therapy." It affects all therapy. It means:
A therapist could promote their personal religious or political views to your child in session
A therapist could use experimental techniques with no scientific backing
A therapist could make promises they can't keep, promising to "fix" your child when no evidence says that's possible
State boards will struggle to discipline therapists who cause harm, because they can claim "free speech" as their defense
When you take your child to a licensed professional, you're trusting that person has been trained, follows established standards of care, and can be held accountable if they do harm. This ruling weakens those protections.
The Dangerous Expansion of Professional "Free Speech"
Here's what makes this especially concerning for parents who value family authority: by expanding therapist free speech protections, this ruling gives more power to strangers and less power to you.
Think about it this way. Professional standards have helped ensure that therapists can't manipulate your child's thinking without consequence. Those standards exist because we recognize that the therapist-client relationship involves a power imbalance. Your child is vulnerable, confused, and looking for guidance.
Now, therapists have broader freedom to shape your child's worldview under the protection of "professional speech." They could:
Tell your child that you caused their confusion through bad parenting
Push them toward decisions you strongly oppose
Discourage them from sharing what happens in therapy with you
Promise outcomes that have no basis in science or medicine
Is that really the kind of freedom we should celebrate? Or does it sound more like we've given therapists permission to come between parents and children?
What Happens Now?
The ruling sent the case back to the Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals, where Colorado's law will be reconsidered under strict scrutiny. That's one of the toughest legal tests a law can face. Most laws fail it.
But the damage extends beyond Colorado. More than 23 states and Washington, D.C., have similar conversion therapy bans on the books. Every one of those laws is now vulnerable to challenge under the framework the Supreme Court established.
Here's what that means for families across the country:
Practitioners who were previously barred from subjecting children to conversion therapy may now operate with less oversight
States that want to protect kids from these discredited practices will have to draft new, more narrowly tailored laws, and even those may face legal challenges
The burden of protecting children shifts more heavily onto parents themselves, who will need to be more informed and more vigilant about who is treating their child and what methods they're using
The Silver Lining: What the Ruling Left Intact
Not everything was lost. There are important things this ruling did not do, and parents should understand them.
Conversion therapy is still medically condemned. Every major medical and mental health association in the United States, including the American Psychiatric Association, the American Psychological Association, and the American Medical Association, continues to oppose these practices. Nothing about this legal ruling changes the science.
Malpractice lawsuits remain available. Families whose children are harmed by conversion therapy practitioners can still take legal action. Therapists who cause damage can still be held accountable in court.
The door to new legislation is not closed. Justice Elena Kagan, who joined the majority, wrote a concurrence noting that a viewpoint-neutral version of the law would raise "a different and more difficult question." Legal experts have suggested states could redraft these laws in ways that might survive the Court's new standard. The fight is not over.
The ruling protects affirming therapy, too. Kagan also pointed out that if a state can't ban therapy aimed at changing a child's identity, it also can't ban therapy that affirms a child's identity. The same First Amendment logic cuts both ways.
The Real Question: Who Has Power Over Your Child's Mind?
This ruling comes down to a simple reality: we now live in a country where therapists have broader freedom to practice unproven techniques on children, with fewer guardrails and less accountability.
Conversion therapy remains a discredited practice. Research consistently shows that it doesn't work, and that it causes real harm: depression, anxiety, family breakdown, and increased risk of suicidal thoughts and behavior among young people. A February 2026 Trevor Project research brief found that young people with recent exposure to conversion therapy reported the highest rates of suicidal thoughts (61%) and attempts (35%) among all groups surveyed.
Parents know our children better than any therapist ever could. We're the ones who will live with the consequences of the decisions we make today. We're the ones who will lose sleep, pray through the night, and carry the weight of wondering if we did right by our kids.
This ruling makes it more important than ever for parents and caretakers to be informed, to ask hard questions, and to refuse to hand their children over to practitioners selling false promises. Don't let someone cash in on your child's identity.
What You Can Do
The Supreme Court has ruled, but the story isn't over. Laws can be rewritten. Families can still pursue justice when practitioners cause harm. And the most powerful thing you can do right now is stay informed.
Share this information with other parents. Talk to your elected officials about protecting children from harmful, unproven practices. And if someone tells you they can "fix" your child through therapy, ask them one question: where's the evidence?
Because at the end of the day, our job as parents isn't to let strangers experiment on our kids in the name of free speech.