The U.S. Supreme Court ruled against Colorado’s ban on conversion therapy for LGBTQ+ people. The March 31 ruling could have repercussions in other states with similar laws, but people who worked on Utah’s 2023 ban say it could be safe from further legal action.
In the 8-1 opinion, Justice Neil Gorsuch wrote that a lower federal appeals court should have applied a more rigorous standard of review, known as strict scrutiny, in its determination of whether the Colorado law violates the First Amendment. The Supreme Court sent the case back down to that lower court to apply that standard.
Even though the Supreme Court did not rule on the constitutionality of Colorado’s law, it suggested that the law could fail the strict scrutiny test, since, according to Justice Gorsuch, it “censors speech based on viewpoint.”
In a statement, LGBTQ+ rights group Equality Utah said that while bans in a number of other states rely on similar language to Colorado’s law, Utah “took a different approach” in crafting its version.
The organization said it “worked in collaboration with Republican lawmakers and other stakeholders” when it helped write the 2023 law that was “designed to balance the free speech rights of licensed therapists with the need to protect minors from harmful and discredited medical practices.”
Utah’s law was sponsored by Republican legislators and passed unanimously before being signed by Gov. Spencer Cox. Currently, 24 states, including Colorado and Utah, have passed bans on conversion therapy.
For Equality Utah Policy Director Marina Lowe, what the ruling on Colorado’s law means for Utah is “not entirely clear.”
“We are still sort of digging into the decision,” she said. “What I will say is clear is that Utah's law looks very distinct from Colorado's law.”
According to an analysis of the two laws by Equality Utah, Colorado’s law differs from Utah’s in several key areas. Notably, Utah’s version has carveouts for gender transitioning “in any direction” and contains exemptions that the organization believes protect against challenges to the law on First Amendment grounds. Additionally, Equality Utah points out that Utah’s law was passed unanimously in a supermajority-Republican legislature, while Colorado’s law was passed largely along party lines by a Democratic majority.
“That was a consideration when we worked on passing the conversion therapy bill in 2023, and the decision was made expressly not to go the route of just copying and pasting that language that Colorado used,” Lowe said. “We explicitly worked with lawmakers on other sides of the aisle, other stakeholders, to really hear the concerns and try and craft something that was very unique to Utah.”
Even with the differences between the two laws, Lowe said Utah’s version won’t be immune to future court challenges.
“If Utah's law were to be challenged, it's always a possibility that it could be considered and struck down on its own as well,” she said. “I do think the courts sort of very specifically said that the law in Colorado was not viewpoint neutral. And if there were a bill that was viewpoint neutral, that would raise much different questions, and I think Utah falls into that category.”
For its part, Equality Utah believes that Utah’s law is “well-positioned to remain in force following today’s ruling.”
Some on the conservative side of the spectrum in Utah are celebrating the ruling, despite being a major contributor to Utah’s 2023 bill. That includes the president of conservative advocacy group Utah Eagle Forum, Gayle Ruzicka.
“Happy for the children under age 18 across this nation that in some states have not been able to get the therapy that they needed because of the very things that was happening in Colorado,” she said.
The Supreme Court ruling upholds the Eagle Forum's firm stance on the First Amendment, religious freedoms and conservative opinions of LGBTQ+ issues, Ruzicka said. In 2023, Utah Eagle Forum worked to ensure the Legislature considered those things in writing the state’s ban on conversion therapy.
In the Colorado case, the plaintiff, Kaley Chiles, is a Christian counselor who said the law banned religious-themed conversations “based on the viewpoints they express.” For Ruzicka, the religious angle is already well covered in Utah’s law.
“There's a lot in the Utah bill about religion,” she said. “It does spell out what they can do if they're counseling them as their religious leader.”
Ruzicka doubts the ruling will have any impact on Utah, but is confident the diverse group of lawmakers and advocates who worked on the original bill would make any “tweaks,” should the legal action taken in Colorado bleed into Utah.
“You know, we all worked together last time, and we can all work together to do it again,” she said.
