Palm Beach County, Boca Raton challenge ruling overturning conversion therapy bans
By : Jason Parsley via South Florida Gay News December 18, 2020
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ABOVE: Watermark file photo by Dylan Todd.
Boca Raton and Palm Beach County filed a petition with the Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals Dec. 11 asking the court to review a November ruling where a three-judge panel found their bans on conversion therapy for minors unconstitutional.
It was uncertain if the county and city were going to challenge the ruling.
The petition is calling for an en banc review, which means all 12 judges would hear the case. The petition also states that the majority opinion overturning the bans “conflicts with circuit precedent” and its interpretation of “strict scrutiny” departs “from the U.S. Supreme Court.”
Palm Beach County and the city of Boca Raton are pushing back on a court panel s decision last month that effectively nullified bans on conversion therapy, arguing that the three judges went beyond their duty when they ruled that such bans violated the First Amendment.
In a petition filed Friday for rehearings in the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals, the local governments say that the decision, possibly unintentionally, included language suggesting it constituted a final decision on the matter of bans on therapists providing conversion therapy to some LGBTQ youth despite its harmful effects.
But Boca Raton and Palm Beach County argue that the panel was supposed to rule only on whether U.S. District Judge Robin Rosenberg correctly rejected a request from two Palm Beach County therapists to temporarily suspend the ban until a final decision could be made.