Eighth Circuit revives Kansas City conversion therapy ban challenge

ST. LOUIS (CN) — Citing a recent Supreme Court ruling in a similar case, the Eighth Circuit revived Thursday a lawsuit filed by a pair of therapists who challenged Kansas City and Jackson County’s ban on conversion therapy.

The appeals court, in a five-page per curiam opinion, cited the Supreme Court’s March 31 decision in Chiles v. Salazar. In that case, the high court ruled 8-1 that a similar ban in Colorado on conversion therapy for minors violates the First Amendment.

“The court rejected Colorado’s theory that its statute regulated professional conduct and not speech … And it concluded that the Colorado statute triggered strict scrutiny because it regulated content and discriminated based on viewpoint,” the court wrote. “Notably, Kansas City and Jackson County pressed the same speech-conduct distinction the Supreme Court rejected in Chiles before the District Court and before us, and this distinction featured prominently in the District Court’s order.”

Conversion therapy is a controversial practice attempting to change an individual’s sexual orientation, gender identity or expression to align with heterosexual and cisgender norms.

Counselors Wyatt Bury and Pamela Eisenreich filed a federal lawsuit in February 2025 against Kansas City and Jackson County, claiming laws passed by each entity violate their free speech.

Their attorney, Bryan D. Neihart — of the Alliance Defending Freedom based in Scottsdale, Arizona — said no government should single out views they don’t like for disfavored treatment.

“The Kansas City and Jackson County ordinances allow counselors to push kids down the dangerous path of gender transition, often leading to harmful drugs and surgeries, but they forbid counselors like Wyatt and Pamela from talking with kids to help them accept their bodies — even when that is the client’s express goal or the reason they seek the counselors’ advice,” Neihart said in a statement.

The plaintiffs claim the laws do not allow them to speak freely to clients who voluntarily seek to align their identity with their sex or wish to avoid unwanted same-sex attractions through voluntary conversations.

U.S. District Judge Roseann A. Ketchmark, a Barack Obama appointee, dismissed the lawsuit over failure to state a claim before the Chiles decision.

In a May hearing, the city and county vowed to address the high court’s decision in Chiles with amendments to their ordinances, but plaintiffs’ attorney Neihart argued neither Kansas City nor Jackson County did anything to address the Chiles decision for five weeks after it was rendered.

The court wrote the plaintiffs’ attorney filed a letter notifying the appeals court of Chiles and contending that Chiles warrants reinstatement of their dismissed claims.

“Kansas City and Jackson County filed no response to the Counselors’ Rule 28(j) letter, but, at oral argument, suggested that this case be remanded to the District Court so that the District Court may address Chiles’s impact in the first instance,” the court wrote. “However, they disputed the extent to which Chiles controls the outcome of this case.”

The appeals court reversed the dismissal of the plaintiffs’ free speech claims and remanded the case back to federal court for further review in light of the Chiles decision.

Neihart said the “decision gives the District Court the opportunity to fully uphold counselors’ freedom of speech and the freedom of families and young people to pursue counselors of their choice, and we hope it will do so.”

The Kansas City Attorney’s Office did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Chief U.S. Circuit Judge Steven M. Colloton and U.S. Circuit Judge Bobby E. Shepherd, George W. Bush appointees, and U.S. Circuit Judge Jonathan A. Kobes, a Donald Trump appointee, made up the three-judge panel.

Follow @joeharris_stl