Summary
Kaley Chiles works as a licensed professional counselor in Colorado who helps clients with various issues, including gender identity. Kaley sees her work as an outpouring of her Christian faith, and numerous clients come to her because she shares their own faith-based convictions and worldview. These clients believe that life will be more fulfilling if aligned with the teachings of their faith. Though Kaley never promises that she can solve these issues, she, like her Christian clients, believes that sexuality and gender identity issues can, with God’s help, be brought into alignment with the teachings of one’s faith.
But in 2019, Colorado legislators passed a law that targets the speech of counselors, specifically in private conversations with clients about gender identity. The law bars licensed counselors from saying anything to clients under the age of 18 that “attempts or purports to change an individual’s … gender identity.” Notably, the law only censors speech in one direction. The law enables counselors to “assist[]” anyone who is “undergoing gender transition.” So counselors may push young clients toward a gender identity different from their sex, which will often lead to harmful drugs and procedures. But counselors are prohibited from helping clients find peace with their biological sex—even when that is the client’s personal goal. The law threatens severe penalties for counselors who provide this help, including thousands of dollars in fines and even the loss of their license.
Colorado’s law violates Kaley’s freedom of speech, and it harms both counselors and clients—which is why ADF is appealing her case to the U.S. Supreme Court. The government has no business censoring conversations between clients and counselors, nor should a counselor be used as a tool to impose the government’s biased views on her clients.
Case Timeline
- September 2022: ADF allied attorney Barry Arrington filed a lawsuit on Kaley Chiles’s behalf and asked a federal district court to halt Colorado’s law.
- December 2022: The district court failed to halt the law.
- January 2023: Arrington and ADF attorneys appealed the district court’s ruling to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 10th Circuit.
- November 2023: ADF attorneys presented oral arguments before the 10th Circuit.
- September 2024: The 10th Circuit ruled against Kaley.
- November 2024: ADF attorneys asked the U.S. Supreme Court to hear Kaley’s case.
- March 2025: The Court agreed to hear Kaley’s case.
- October 2025: ADF Chief Legal Counsel Jim Campbell presented oral arguments before the U.S. Supreme Court
