SCOTUS Affirms Counselor’s Speech
In an 8-1 decision by the Supreme Court of the United States on Tuesday, March 31, 2026, the nation’s highest court upheld Kaley Chiles’ ability to speak into the lives of those she has counseled who struggle with gender dysphoria and confusion. The case, Chiles v. Salazar, centered around a Colorado law enacted in 2019 which censored a counselor’s ability to speak truth and clarity to those who are dealing with identity issues.
In October 2025, Alaska Family Council allies at Alliance Defending Freedom represented Kaley Chiles before the Supreme Court. Concerning the Colorado Law, ADF stated:
“Notably, the [Colorado] law only censors speech in one direction. The law enables counselors to ‘assist’ anyone who is ‘undergoing gender transition.’ So counselors may push young clients toward a gender identity different from their sex, which will often lead to harmful drugs and procedures. But counselors are prohibited from helping clients find peace with their biological sex—even when that is the client’s personal goal. The law threatens severe penalties for counselors who provide this help, including thousands of dollars in fines and even the loss of their license.”
Concerning the Supreme Court’s decision today, ADF explains, “Colorado’s law banning conversion therapy, as applied to Ms. Chiles’s talk therapy, regulates speech based on viewpoint, and the lower courts erred by failing to apply sufficiently rigorous First Amendment scrutiny.”
According to the majority opinion and several conservative scholars, the Colorado law’s restriction of “long-abandoned, aversive” physical interventions such as shock therapy are still banned and the decision handed down today does not negate the state’s restriction of those aversive practices.
Associate Justice Neil Gorsuch, who authored the majority opinion, wrote:
“Colorado’s law addressing conversion therapy does not just ban physical interventions. In cases like this, it censors speech based on viewpoint. Colorado may regard its policy as essential to public health and safety. Certainly, censorious governments throughout history have believed the same. But the First Amendment stands as a shield against any effort to enforce orthodoxy in thought or speech in this country. It reflects instead a judgment that every American possesses an inalienable right to think and speak freely, and a faith in the free marketplace of ideas as the best means for discovering truth. However well-intentioned, any law that suppresses speech based on viewpoint represents an “egregious” assault on both of those commitments.”
In addition to the 6 conservative-leaning justices on the Supreme Court, Justices Kagan and Sotomayor joined in the majority opinion. In her concurring opinion, Associate Justice Kagan wrote, “The Court today decides that the Colorado law challenged here, as applied to talk therapy, conflicts with core First Amendment principles because it regulates speech based on viewpoint. … I agree.”
Later in her opinion Justice Kagan states:
“Instead of barring talk therapy designed to change a minor’s sexual orientation or gender identity, this law bars therapy affirming those things. As Ms. Chiles readily acknowledges, the First Amendment would apply in the identical way. Once again, because the State has suppressed one side of a debate, while aiding the other, the constitutional issue is straightforward.”
Conclusion:
Today’s ruling is a great victory for those working to help people, especially children, who are struggling with gender dysphoria and sexual identity crisis. Alaska Family Council is encouraged by the Supreme Court’s decision to deem the Colorado law censoring speech unconstitutional. Our team will continue to stand firmly on the truth of innate, biological sex and the right of parents and medical professionals to help the vulnerable among us.
Here in Alaska, as Suzanne Downing just wrote in The Alaska Story HERE, “For Anchorage, the practical result is that its conversion-therapy ordinance remains on the books for now, but its legal footing may be shakier than before. Alaska has no statewide ban, making Anchorage the only local government in the state to adopt one.”