Palm Beach County and the City of Boca Raton appeal conversion therapy ruling

On December 11, Palm Beach County and the City of Boca Raton appealed a November 20th Eleventh Circuit Court ruling that local ordinances banning “conversion therapy” on minors violate the first amendment. 

PBC and the city argue that the original ruling overstepped when it was only supposed to rule as to whether U.S. District Judge Robin Rosenberg had  “correctly rejected a request from two Palm Beach County therapists to temporarily suspend the ban until a final decision could be made.”

In 2017, Palm Beach County and the City of Boca Raton passed the ban on “conversion therapy” for minors and in 2018 therapists Robert Otto and Julie Hamilton took the issue to federal court. 

PBC and the city are seeking two hearings which will discuss both “ruling concerns” and will address whether the therapists’ argument that the ordinances violate the first amendment are valid and “whether it can be applied to a decision on a preliminary injunction.”

The petition for the rehearing argues that the language in the ruling suggested the ruling “constituted a final decision”  on providing conversion therapy to minors.

A new hearing has not yet been granted.