The Denver Gazette’s Michael Karlik reports that a federal judge has blocked Colorado from enforcing its restriction on conversion therapy for LGBTQ+ minors against Colorado Springs counselor Kaley Chiles while her case continues. Both sides agreed the state will not pursue professional disciplinary action against her during the litigation.
The case centers on Colorado’s 2019 law prohibiting certain state-licensed professionals from trying to change a minor patient’s gender identity, sexual orientation, or eliminate same-sex attraction. Chiles argues the restriction violates her First Amendment rights. After the U.S. Supreme Court reversed the 10th Circuit this spring, the legal weather changed: the law now has to be analyzed under a more rigorous standard for restrictions on expression.
To be clear, this is not a culture-war victory lap, and it is not an invitation to punch at LGBTQ kids. Keep that garbage out. The issue here is state power, professional licensing, compelled orthodoxy, and the arrogance of politicians and boards who think a license is a leash they get to yank whenever speech drifts outside the approved Denver catechism.
The Bullet Point Brief
- Colorado passed a broad restriction on certain counseling practices involving minors, and Chiles challenged it as a violation of speech rights. The state called it professional regulation. She called it censorship. That is the fight.
- A federal judge has now formalized a preliminary injunction preventing enforcement against Chiles’ talk-only licensed professional counseling and addiction counseling while the case proceeds. That is not the whole law being dead. It is a serious legal warning shot.
- The Supreme Court did not strike down Colorado’s law, but it did say the courts need to look at it through a stricter First Amendment lens. Translation: government does not get to slap “professional conduct” on speech and call the Constitution handled.
- Judge Harris Hartz, who had dissented earlier at the 10th Circuit, said the regulation of Chiles’ speech does not come close to satisfying the test and argued the case should move quickly. That is a pretty direct judicial throat-clear.
- Gov. Jared Polis also recently signed a bill modifying the definition of “conversion therapy,” and the parties told the court they disagree about what that change means for the case. Because of course Colorado added another layer while litigation was already smoking. That is very on-brand.
My Bottom Line
You can oppose coercion, abuse, and cruelty while still saying the government does not get unlimited power to dictate conversations between licensed professionals and clients. Those two thoughts can live in the same adult brain. Apparently that is now advanced placement civics.
Colorado built another policy cathedral on “compassion,” then acted shocked when the First Amendment walked in with a crowbar. The ruling-class licensing machine loves calling everything “settled science” right up until a federal judge says, actually, government does not get to turn therapy into a state-approved script.
That is the broader Colorado habit: pass maximalist laws, outsource morality to boards, dare citizens to sue, and spend public money defending ideological flexes. Then, when the courts start asking basic constitutional questions, everybody acts like the consequences fairy kicked in the door uninvited.
You do not have to like every counseling viewpoint on Earth to understand that letting Colorado bureaucrats decide what viewpoints may legally be spoken is a loaded gun pointed at everyone. Today it is this counselor. Tomorrow it is someone else with the wrong approved sentence structure. That is how speech control works. It always arrives wearing a lab coat, carrying a clipboard, and promising it is only here to help.
Source: The Denver Gazette
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