Last week brought two major court victories for families, and the states that spent years fighting them are now paying the price—literally. For Arizona parents, it was a week worth celebrating.

SCOTUS Rules for Counselors and Families, 8-1

On March 31, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled 8-1 in Chiles v. Salazar  that Colorado’s law banning certain counseling conversations violates the First Amendment. The law allowed therapists to affirm a child’s gender confusion but prohibited counselors from helping a child who wanted to find peace in his or her own body. The Supreme Court ruled that is viewpoint discrimination, and viewpoint discrimination cannot survive the First Amendment.

Jim Campbell, ADF Chief Legal Counsel, who argued the case before the Supreme Court, stated, “Kids deserve real help affirming that their bodies are not a mistake and that they are wonderfully made.” Kaley Chiles, the therapist who brought the case, faced fines, probation, and the loss of her license—simply for offering a viewpoint the state disapproved.

The ruling was not close, and it was not partisan. Justices Elena Kagan and Sonia Sotomayor joined the majority, with Kagan writing separately to say the constitutional issue was clear: “Because the State has suppressed one side of a debate, while aiding the other, the constitutional issue is straightforward.” Only Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson dissented.

ADF attorney Jake Warner called the ruling the beginning of the end for similar bans. “The First Amendment applies in the counseling room just like it applies everywhere else, and the state doesn’t have a free hand to censor viewpoints that it disagrees with,” Warner said—and he is right.

The case returns to lower courts, where similar bans in more than 20 states and over 100 localities now face strict scrutiny, including Pima County, Arizona, which banned this counseling in 2017. That ordinance is now constitutionally indefensible, and Pima County families and counselors should know it.

“This is a day of hope for every Arizona family who has been told the government knows better than they do about how to care for their own child,” said Peter Gentala, President of Center for Arizona Policy. “Children struggling with questions of identity deserve compassionate counselors who will help them embrace the truth that their bodies are not a mistake, not a government that censors every voice except those pushing them toward irreversible harm. Today, the Supreme Court affirmed what we have always known: freedom of speech and parental rights are not obstacles to good care. They are the foundation of it.”

California Ordered to Pay $4.5 Million for Fighting Parents

The same day, a federal court ordered California to pay $4.52 million in attorneys’ fees to Thomas More Society in Mirabelli v. Bonta, the case in which the U.S. Supreme Court ruled 6-3 that California school districts could not conceal children’s sex changes from their parents. Two award-winning middle school teachers were told they had to hide students’ cross-sex transitions from their own parents—in violation of their religious convictions.

They refused.

California fought at every turn and lost at every turn. The state lost at summary judgment, lost at the Supreme Court, and then kept fighting. Judge Roger Benitez was blunt, citing the state’s “litigation intransigence” and arguments he found “inarguably meritless.” The fee award came with a rare 1.25 multiplier, reserved for cases of exceptional importance.

Peter Breen, Executive Vice President and Head of Litigation at Thomas More Society, put it plainly, “A $4.5 million fee award sends an unmistakable message to state governments and school districts across the country: if you trample the constitutional rights of parents, you will pay for it, literally.”

California taxpayers are now paying $4.5 million because their government decided to fight parents in court. Every school district in America should take note.

Two courts. Two victories. Two reminders that the fight for parental rights and free speech is being won, and that those who trample the constitutional rights of families will answer for it, in court and in the state’s pocketbook. Pray for the families and counselors still on the front lines—and stand with CAP as we work to make sure Arizona is a state where parents lead and children are protected.

ICYMI

• Check out the new legislation that requires sex offenders to disclose status when seeking name changes
• See why the CIA took interest in women promoting ‘extremist views’ like faith, family, and motherhood
• Read why Arizona’s United States Representative calls for federal ban on Rank Choice Voting
• Read how ‘grooming’ is at the core of sex education in public schools across the country
• See how a bipartisan bill may restrict social media from minors in Arizona