California: 9th Circuit of Appeals upholds ban on "conversion therapy" for minors

Chris Geidner at Buzzfeed has the news:

A federal appeals court Thursday upheld California’s ban on therapy aimed at changing minors’ sexual orientation.

In a unanimous decision of the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, the law — the first of its kind in the country — was upheld as being within the legislature’s authority to pass. Parents wishing to employ such therapy with their children and professionals who employ “sexual orientation change effort” therapy.

New Jersey last week became the second state in the country to pass such a law.

The three-judge panel that heard the appeal of California’s law considered both free speech claims brought by the practitioners, associational claims brought by the parties, and claims about parents’ rights to raise their children. The judges found the law violated none of these provisions.