Donald Welch v. Edmund Brown, Jr.

Once again, we consider facial constitutional challenges to California’s law prohibiting state-licensed mental health providers from engaging in “sexual orientation change efforts” (“SOCE”) with minor patients. The law is known as Senate Bill 1172, or SB 1172, and is codified in California’s Business and Professions Code sections 865, 865.1, and 865.2. Plaintiffs are two state-licensed mental health providers and one aspiring state-licensed mental health provider who seek to engage in SOCE with minor patients. Defendants are the Governor of California and other state officials, to whom we refer collectively as “the State.”

Our' earlier opinion in Pickup v. Brown, 740 F.3d 1208 (9th Cir. 2014), contains further background information. In that appeal, we undertook plenary review of the claims raised at the preliminary injunction stage. We held that “SB 1172, as a regulation of professional conduct, does not violate the free speech rights of SOCE practitioners or minor patients, is neither vague nor overbroad, and does not violate parents’ fundamental rights”; and we remanded for further proceedings on any additional claims. Id. at 1222 . On remand, Plaintiffs claimed that…