Unsplash/Ben White An appeals court has declined to rehear an appeal in the case of a Christian therapist suing Washington state over its ban on therapy for minors experiencing unwanted same-sex attraction. The United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit voted on Monday to deny a full court rehearing for a lawsuit filed by therapist Brian Tingley, who is challenging Washington’s law. Circuit Judge Diarmuid F. O’Scannlain authored a statement respecting the order to deny the en banc rehearing, but also believed that the earlier panel opinion was “erroneous” in its reasoning. “In sum, under binding Supreme Court precedents, conversion therapy consisting entirely of speech cannot be prohibited without some degree of First Amendment scrutiny,” wrote O’Scannlain. “The panel cites no evidence for the implausible proposition that conversion therapy conducted entirely by means of speech risks direct physical harm … Speech which risks psychological harm does not thereby become non-speech conduct entire without First Amendment protections.” Circuit Judge Patrick J. Bumatay authored a dissenting opinion to the vote, concluding that the full court should have considered the First Amendment arguments of Tingley. “Because the speech underpinning conversion therapy is overwhelmingly—if not exclusively—religious, we should have granted Tingley’s […]
