The U.S. Supreme Court has rejected an appeal of a lower court ruling to leave standing a 2012 California law banning conversion therapy for minors.
According to Reuters, this was the second time in three years the court had rejected an appeal of the California law. That ruling left in place a lower court ruling that the law neither impinged upon free exercise of religion nor impacted the activities of clergy members.
California passed the law prohibiting state-licensed mental health counselors, including psychologists and social workers, from offering therapy to change sexual orientation in minors back in 2012, making it the first state to pass such a law. SCOTUS refused to review the law in 2014 after an appeals court rejected claims that the ban infringed on free speech rights under U.S. Constitution’s the First Amendment. This time, a Christian minister challenged the law, claiming that it violates religious freedom.
New Jersey, Illinois, Oregon, Vermont, New Mexico and the District of Columbia now have similar laws on the books. The Supreme Court turned away a challenge to New Jersey’s law in 2015.