Chiles v. Salazar is about whether a Colorado law, which bans counselors from speaking about gender and sexuality to clients under 18 unless the counselors affirm the minors’ gender and/or sexuality confusion, violates the counselors’ free speech protections.
Case Status
- Decided – Win for Christian counselor’s free speech
- 8-1 ruling on March 31, 2026
- Decision date: March 31, 2026
- Argued date: October 7, 2025
What is this case about?
In 2019, Colorado enacted a law that banned counselors from speaking about gender and sexuality to clients under 18 unless the counselors affirm the minors’ gender and/or sexuality confusion.
Kaley Chiles is a licensed counselor in Colorado, and she talks to her clients about issues including addiction, personality disorders, gender identity, and sexual orientation. Chiles is a Christian, and she incorporates her convictions into her sessions, often seeing clients who want someone who shares their faith or values.
Colorado’s unconstitutional law silences Chiles from helping her clients bring their sense of identity into accordance with reality and truth, even if that is what the client is seeking. Colorado argues the law regulates the professional conduct and medical treatments of licensed counselors, but Chiles only employs talk therapy. As such, the state’s regulation infringes on her First Amendment rights to speak freely with her clients because the state disfavors the view she may express in her counseling sessions.
Both the district court and the 10th Circuit rejected Chiles’ argument that the law burdened her speech, saying the implication to her speech was only incidental and the state was legally regulating her professional conduct. Chiles petitioned the Supreme Court to reverse those rulings
What is the question in the case?
Question in the case: Is this free speech or professional conduct?
This case seeks to determine whether a law that censors certain conversations between counselors and their clients based on the viewpoints expressed regulates conduct or violates the Free Speech Clause of the First Amendment.
Why does it matter to Southern Baptists?
Southern Baptists affirm biblical truth, affirmed by the biological reality, that God created us male and female by his good design. We denounce efforts that attempt to change one’s identity to something other than who God has created us to be. As the Baptist Faith and Message 2000 states, “He created them male and female as the crowning work of His creation. The gift of gender is thus part of the goodness of God’s creation.”
Our culture’s drift into acceptance of gender ideology victimizes the children who have been experimented upon by medical professionals under the guise of healthcare. It is vitally important that the state not coerce the speech of counselors who affirm biblical truth and force them to violate their deeply held religious convictions.
Supreme Court Ruling
- On March 31, the Supreme Court issued an 8-1 decision in Chiles v. Salazar, an important free speech case for Christian counselors in Colorado. Upholding the First Amendment rights of talk therapists, the court reversed a Tenth Circuit decision denying Kaley Chiles’ right to freely speak with her clients regarding issues of sexual orientation and gender identity. The Supreme Court’s decision is a victory for the constitutional right to freely communicate beliefs, including religiously motivated beliefs.
- The court’s opinion, authored by Justice Neil Gorsuch, denied Colorado’s defense of its law and denounced the state as a “censorious government.” The opinion was joined by Justices Alito, Thomas, Kagan, Sotomayor, Kavanaugh, Barrett, and Chief Justice Roberts. Justice Kagan wrote a concurring opinion, joined by Justice Sotomayor. The dissenting opinion was offered by Justice Jackson.
Want to learn more about this case?
Read the ERLC Explainer: Supreme Court upholds Christian counselor’s right to free speech.
