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A Short Take on Chiles v. Salazar

Another religious freedom case in a free speech guise

Mark Movsesian | 4.2.2026 9:02 AM

The Supreme Court ruled this week, 8-1, in Chiles v. Salazar, that Colorado may not apply its ban on conversion therapy for minors to prohibit a licensed counselor's talk therapy. Justice Gorsuch wrote for the Court; Justice Kagan concurred, joined by Justice Sotomayor; Justice Jackson dissented. The Court held that, as applied to therapist Kayla Chiles's conversations with clients, Colorado's law discriminates on the basis of viewpoint and therefore triggers the most searching First Amendment scrutiny.

A couple points. First, this is not, formally speaking, a religion case. It's a Free Speech Clause case. Indeed, as far as I can tell, the word "religion" does not even appear........

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