With all the bad news from the SCOTUS today (Hobby Lobby case and the anti-unions ruling), there was at least this one favorable decision (however small). The Court denied certiorari in two cases out of California involving the state's ban on LGBT reparative therapy for minors. A Ninth Circuit panel had ruled that the law was a permissible regulation of the medical profession. That ruling was appealed, and the SCOTUS declined to hear those cases leaving the ruling from the Ninth Circuit intact.
The cases are Pickup v. Brown and Welch v. Brown.
From the earlier Ninth Circuit ruling:
Although we generally review for abuse of discretion a district court’s decision to grant or deny a preliminary injunction, we may undertake plenary review of the issues if a district court’s ruling “‘rests solely on a premise as to the applicable rule of law, and the facts are established or of no controlling relevance.’” Gorbach v. Reno, 219 F.3d 1087, 1091 (9th Cir. 2000) (en banc) (quoting Thornburgh v. Am. Coll. of Obstetricians & Gynecologists, 476 U.S. 747, 755–57 (1986)). Because those conditions are met here, we undertake plenary review and hold that SB 1172, as a regulation of professional conduct, does not violate the free speech rights of SOCE practitioners or minor patients, is neither vague nor overbroad, and does not violate parents’ fundamental rights. Accordingly, we reverse the order granting preliminary relief in Welch and affirm the denial of preliminary relief in Pickup.
You can read more about that decision
here.
A similar law enacted in New Jersey has been upheld in federal district court and was appealed, and the Third Circuit will hear arguments in that case on July 9.