Federal Appeals Court Hears Ex-Gay Torture Challenge

Courthouse News reports:

The constitutionality of South Florida bans on juvenile gay conversion therapy is hanging in the balance in the 11th Circuit, where attorneys jousted Tuesday over whether the bans violate therapists’ free speech rights.

At issue is a lawsuit filed by two therapists challenging local laws that prohibit them and other licensed counselors from performing gay conversion therapy on minors. The local ordinances were passed by the city of Boca Raton and surrounding Palm Beach County.

On appeal Tuesday in a special Miami hearing of the Atlanta-based 11th Circuit, the therapists’ attorney Mathew Staver urged the three-judge panel to overturn the lower court’s decision. The debate was focused on whether the gay conversion bans represent a regulation of professional medical treatment versus a curtailing of speech.

Read the full article for arguments by the good guys. Two of the three appeals court judges hearing the case were appointed by Trump. If Staver wins at this level, the issue will surely again wind up before the Supreme Court, which has twice before rejected appeals of state-level bans. Since then, however, there are two Trump-appointed justices.