First Amendment and Courts

The Democratic-controlled Colorado House has passed HB26-1322, a bill that would let people sue licensed mental health professionals and their employers for harm caused by efforts to change a person’s sexual orientation or gender identity, effectively creating a civil-liability path for conversion therapy claims. The vote comes just days after the U.S. Supreme Court, in an 8–1 decision, blocked Colorado from enforcing its existing conversion-therapy ban as applied to conversations with LGBTQ minors, finding the law likely violated the First Amendment by favoring affirming viewpoints over change-oriented ones. Sponsors Reps. Alex Valdez and Karen McCormick defended the new measure as necessary to protect LGBTQ Coloradans from what they call an "ineffective and harmful" practice, while Republican Rep. Matt Soper told Fox News Digital the bill is a "slap in the face" to the Supreme Court and a de facto attempt to revive the ban. The bill, which could expose providers and supervising entities to significant financial liability even years after treatment, now heads to Colorado’s Democratic-controlled Senate. The clash is already being framed online as a test case for how far states can go in regulating or deterring conversion therapy through tort law after direct bans run into First Amendment limits.