Tenth Circuit keeps Colorado’s conversion-therapy ban for minors

Licensed counselors in Colorado still cannot provide conversion therapy to minors after a federal appeals court rejected a religious-objection argument. The Tenth Circuit said the law’s plain text is neutral on its face, which keeps the ban in place for practitioners who say the restriction conflicts with their faith.

Neutral on its face

The court also rejected the claim that the law refers to a religious practice without a secular meaning discernible. In the judges’ view, the statute is directed at licensed mental-health treatment, not at religion itself. That distinction mattered because the case turned on whether Colorado had singled out protected religious exercise or written a general rule for people in the profession.

The dispute, Chiles v. Salazar, pits Kaley Chiles against Colorado regulators sued in their official capacities. Her challenge asked whether the state may keep enforcing limits on a disputed therapy when the counselor objects on religious grounds.

What stays in the clinic

For Colorado minors and families, the practical result does not change. Licensed counselors remain barred from providing conversion therapy, and state regulators keep the power to enforce that restriction against the licensed practice of mental health care.