The Center for American Liberty Fights Colorado’s Attempt to Compel Ideological Speech

The Center for American Liberty Fights Colorado’s Attempt to Compel Ideological Speech

The Center for American Liberty filed three amicus briefs today in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit supporting challenges to Colorado’s recent expansion of the Colorado Anti-Discrimination Act.

The cases—Committee of Five / XX-XY AthleticsDoxa Enterprises / Born Again Used Books, and Defending Education—involve different plaintiffs, but all challenge the same core problem: Colorado has amended its public-accommodation law to define “gender expression” to include a person’s chosen name and “how the individual chooses to be addressed.”

That expansion threatens businesses, doctors, advocacy groups, religious organizations, event hosts, and others with legal consequences if they decline to use state-approved terminology on contested questions of sex and gender.

The three appeals involve distinct plaintiffs:

XX-XY Athletics is a women’s athletic apparel company that advocates for protecting women’s sports and wants to speak truthfully about male athletes competing in women’s sports.

Born Again Used Books is a Christian bookstore that serves everyone but does not want to be forced to use language inconsistent with its religious beliefs.

Defending Education involves advocacy organizations and medical professionals who want to speak clearly about gender ideology, parental rights, and medical care without being compelled to use Colorado’s preferred vocabulary.

The Center for American Liberty’s briefs argue that Colorado has turned the First Amendment upside down. The State has refused to disavow enforcement against speakers who use biologically accurate language, instead claiming it will decide later, case by case, whether particular words violate CADA. That uncertainty chills speech now—before any formal penalty is imposed.

The briefs make one central point: Colorado may require public accommodations to serve everyone equally, but it may not compel private speakers to affirm government-approved beliefs. Equal access is one thing. Compelled ideological conformity is another.

No American should have to choose between staying silent, violating conscience, or risking investigation and punishment for using truthful language. And this issue reaches far beyond pronouns. If Colorado can force speech on gender identity through public-accommodation law, future governments could use the same theory to force speech on religion, abortion, race, sexuality, medicine, immigration, or any other contested public issue.

Read the briefs: Committee of Five / XX-XY Athletics; Doxa Enterprises / Born Again Used Books.
Defending Education.

The Center for American Liberty Fights Colorado’s Attempt to Compel Ideological Speech