2023-12-11 17:58:02
WASHINGTON (AP) — The U.S. Supreme Court has declined to take up a case over whether state and local governments can enforce laws banning conversion therapy for LGBTQ+ children.
Faced with the dissent of three conservative justices, the court rejected an appeal from Washington, where the law had been ratified. An appeals panel struck down local bans in Florida as an unconstitutional restriction on counselor speech.
The Supreme Court often intervenes when appeals courts disagree, and in separate opinions, Justices Samuel Alito and Clarence Thomas said that standard was easily met in the controversy over conversion therapy bans.
Thomas wrote that his colleague should have accepted Washington’s case because “licensed counselors cannot express anything other than the state-approved opinion about minors with gender dysphoria without facing punishment.”
Judge Brett Kavanaugh also voted to hear the case. It takes four of the nine justices to make a case for arguments.
The court’s decision to avoid the case in Washington comes as efforts to limit the rights of LGBTQ+ children have spread across the country.
About half of states prohibit the practice of attempting to change a person’s sexual orientation or gender identity through counseling.
A family counselor in Washington, Brian Tingley, sued over a 2018 state law that threatens therapists who engage in conversion therapy with the loss of their license. Tingley claims the law violates his right to express himself. The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals upheld it in a split decision.
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