Liberty Counsel Petitions SCOTUS On Ex-Gay Torture

Via press release from hate group leader Mat Staver:

Liberty Counsel filed a petition today urging the U.S. Supreme Court to review King v. Christie, a case that upheld a ban on change counsel which the High Court expressly abrogated last year by name.

New Jersey passed a law banning licensed mental health professionals from providing and clients from receiving any counsel to reduce or eliminate unwanted same-sex attractions, behaviors, or identity.

The Court of Appeals found that the law was a content restriction on speech, but created a new “professional speech” category, thus providing less protection and thereby upheld the law. Last year in National Institute of Family and Life Advocates (NIFLA) v. Becerra, the Supreme Court gutted the King v. Christie case and a similar case from the Ninth Circuit, Pickup v. Brown.

As Liberty Counsel argued to the Court of Appeals, the High Court ruled that it had never created a “professional speech” category. With the Supreme Court’s rejection of King and Pickup, the therapy bans in California, New Jersey, and other jurisdictions are subject to constitutional challenge.

The Supreme Court has twice previously refused to hear Liberty Counsel’s appeals on ex-gay torture, first in 2014 regarding California and then again in 2016 with New Jersey. They are now depending on an alleged new precedent set by the NIFLA case, which they claim “gutted” earlier rulings.