For Second Time SCOTUS Refuses To Hear Appeal Of California’s Landmark 2012 Ban On Ex-Gay Torture

Bloomberg reports:

The U.S. Supreme Court let stand a California law that bans licensed therapists from working with children to change their sexual orientation from gay to straight, rejecting an appeal that said the measure violates religious rights.

The rebuff leaves intact a federal appeals court decision upholding California’s 2012 first-of-its-kind law. The measure prohibits the form of counseling known as “conversion therapy.”

The ban was challenged by three people, led by licensed therapist and minister Donald Welch, who said it interferes with their right to practice their religious beliefs.

The suit was filed by the anti-LGBT Pacific Justice Institute, which was last smacked down by SCOTUS in 2014 when they appealed California’s ban on the grounds that it restricts free speech. SCOTUS has also refused to hear an appeal of New Jersey’s ban.