She’s represented by Alliance Defending Freedom, the same right-wing Christian legal organization behind the law the Supreme Court used to overturn Roe v. Wade and the challenge to the abortion drug mifepristone. ADF won a case in 2023 on behalf of a Colorado website designer who said the state’s anti-discrimination law would force her to make wedding websites for same-sex couples. (The designer had never actually created wedding sites before.)
The 10th Circuit Court of Appeals upheld the Colorado law in September, so Chiles and ADF appealed to the high court. ADF noted that a different appeals court, the 11th Circuit, struck down similar Florida laws in 2020 so it’s appropriate for the court to weigh in.
ADF claimed the statute amounts to “censorship,” but Colorado Attorney General Phil Weiser (D) said Monday that the law regulates conduct, not speech. “States have long regulated medical practices to protect patients from unsafe, harmful professional conduct,” Weiser said in a statement. “Colorado’s law protecting young people from unscientific and cruel gay conversion therapy practices is humane, smart, and appropriate.”
Human Rights Campaign President Kelley Robinson said in a statement that the court’s decision to take the case is part of “an effort to erase LGBTQ+ people and gut protections that keep our kids safe.” She continued, “There’s no debate: so-called ‘conversion therapy’ is a dangerous practice, not therapy, and it has no place in our communities. These bans exist to protect LGBTQ+ children from harm—period.”
In its petition for the court to hear the case, ADF claimed another of its victories meant the justices should rule in Chiles’ favor: The 2018 decision striking down a California law requiring anti-abortion crisis pregnancy centers to disclose that they don’t offer abortions. That case, National Institutes of Family and Life Advocates v. Becerra, let crisis pregnancy centers continue deceiving people, all while anti-abortion states pass their own compelled speech laws requiring doctors to spout falsehoods about the risks of abortions.
The literal only saving grace here is that the case won’t be heard until the court’s next term, which starts in October and ends in June 2026, so nothing will change for a while.
