The case, April 23 -- In a ruling that is already reverberating across the American legal and cultural landscape, the US Supreme Court delivered an overwhelming 8-1 decision striking at the core of Colorado's ban on conversion therapy for minors, setting up a high-stakes constitutional battle over free speech, medical authority, and the limits of state power.

Is what happens inside a therapist's office speech protected by the Constitution, or conduct that states can regulate?

The Court's answer, at least for now, tilts decisively toward speech.

Writing for the majority, Justice Neil Gorsuch framed Colorado's 2019 law as a form of viewpoint discrimination, arguing that it selectively permitted certain therapeutic conversations while ban...