Michigan Conversion Therapy Ban Gets Preliminary Block (1)

Michigan’s gender and sexuality conversion ban for minors can’t be enforced while an underlying challenge is pursued, a split Sixth Circuit panel ruled Wednesday.

The 2-1, conservative-led ruling by the US Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit sends the case back to a district judge for an order blocking the law while the case is pending. Judge Raymond M. Kethledge rejected arguments from Michigan officials that the ban regulates regulates professional conduct and not speech.

“Here, the defendants do not even attempt to identify any long-settled tradition of regulating speech in the same way that HB 4616 regulates it,” ...