Why Colorado’s Counseling Censorship Should Lose at the Supreme Court

National Review ^ | October 7, 2025 | Jim Campbell

[karpov]

In the board game Taboo, a speaker seeks to lead listeners to a certain answer and must point the way using only words that the game allows. The game sets a predetermined goal and censors the speech that would best help teams to achieve it. Such rules ensure a fun game night, but when states deploy them, it crashes the party and violates the First Amendment.

Just ask Colorado counselors. In 2019, Colorado enacted a law that restricts them from having certain conversations about gender and sexuality with clients under the age of 18. Any counselor who speaks the forbidden messages could face steep penalties — up to $5,000 for each violation, possible suspension from practice, and even revocation of the counselor’s license.

Alliance Defending Freedom, where I serve as chief legal counsel, represents counselor Kaley Chiles in a lawsuit against this prohibitive law. Kaley is a Christian who sees her vocation as an outpouring of her faith, and her clients often seek her out because they share the same values and beliefs. The Supreme Court heard her case on Tuesday, and at least three aspects of the case should lead to free speech prevailing.

First, Colorado bans the expression of viewpoints with which it disagrees. If a girl comes to Kaley, says she thinks she may be a boy, and wants to realign her identity with her sex, Colorado’s law bans that conversation. At the same time, the law allows conversations to push that girl down an unproven path of gender transition, which might include dangerous drugs and procedures. Colorado is coercing counselors and their clients to succumb to its ideological demands or refuse help.

Second, this viewpoint discrimination treads on client autonomy. Kaley works only with clients who want her help.

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TOPICS: Culture/Society; Editorial; Government
KEYWORDS: freespeech; trans; transgender

[WhiteHatBobby0701]

These laws are the byproduct of a post-Obergefell dictate that the rights of Big Perversion overrule all others. And we see the consequences of such stupidity. A state religion of humanism states we must submit to the cause of Big Perversion, and opposing them is a hate crime by federal law.

The idea nobody can oppose the new deity of the Left is part of how to impose evil.

[CFW]

“SCOTUS Appears Skeptical Of Colorado Law Forcing Counselors To Agree With Kids’ Gender Confusion”

https://freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/4344943/posts

[fwdude]

These laws are the byproduct of a post-Obergefell dictate that the rights of Big Perversion overrule all others.

These laws pre-date Obergefell by at least 3 years. California passed the first such law in 2012.