Justice Neil Gorsuch [raised] a more sophisticated version of the “can we really trust health care professionals?” question [than Justice Alito’s idiotic version]. As [Justice Gorsuch] noted, back in the 1970s “homosexuality” was considered a disorder by the mental health profession. So, under Colorado’s proposed rule [that would allow the state to ban conversion therapy], which permits states to ban treatments that do not align with the standard of care within a profession, couldn’t states have banned therapists from affirming their gay patients’ sexual orientations in the 1970s?
[Colorado’s lawyer] conceded that [states] could have back then. And she was right to do so. One uncomfortable consequence of relying on experts is that sometimes experts are wrong. And if you root the law in the consensus among experts, the law will sometimes do harmful things if that consensus is erroneous.
But what is the alternative? Relying on people who don’t know what they are talking about?
— “The Supreme Court fights over whether medical expertise actually exists,” Vox.com
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