The Supreme Court released its opinion on one of the most controversial cases of the term regarding a Colorado law that banned LGBTQ plus conversion therapy for minors.

The high court's ruling effectively throws the case back to a lower court, which is tasked with examining whether

or not the law infringed on the free speech rights of Kaylee Childs, a licensed counselor with a

master's degree in clinical mental health, who said she practices from a Christian perspective.

Hello and welcome to USA Today's The Excerpt. I'm Dana Taylor. Today is Wednesday, April 1, 26.

Joining me to walk through what this decision will mean not only for childs, but for Christian

counselors in the two dozen other states that have an active ban on conversion therapy for

minors is USA Today's Supreme

Court correspondent, Maureen, thank you so much for being here.

Hi, thanks for having me.

Maureen, what was the basis of this Colorado dispute?

Well, the Christian counselor that you mentioned, she was challenging the constitutionality of

this Colorado law that prohibits licensed

mental health workers from providing conversion therapy to minors. And the state defines conversion

therapy as an attempt to, quote, change in individuals sexual orientation or gender identity,

including efforts to change behaviors or gender expressions or to eliminate or reduce

sexual or romantic attraction or feelings toward individuals of the same sex.

And the main issue here was that she was saying that the law allows her to help someone

transition to another gender or to help them be comfortable as a gay person. But if she wants to

counsel someone to be, as she put it comfortable in the sex that they were born in, to not

transition, then that is not allowed under the law. So the question was whether this law then

restricts her free speech rights. What does this eight to one ruling essentially do?

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