Megan Kelly reports the Supreme Court's 8-1 ruling striking down Colorado's conversion therapy ban, siding with counselor Kaylee Chiles under Justice Neil Gorsuch's First Amendment opinion while Justice Katanji Brown Jackson dissented. The update covers Congressman Eric Swalwell's cease-and-desist to FBI Director Kash Patel regarding spy Christine Fang files, Tiger Woods' first statement after his Jupiter Island DUI arrest involving hydrocodone, and NASA's Artemis II crew—Reed Wiseman, Victor Glover, Christina Cook, and Jeremy Hansen—preparing for a historic 10-day lunar orbit mission. [Automatically generated summary]
It's Wednesday, April 1st, 2026, and this is your AM update.
Almost the entire court recognized just how problematic it is for the state of Colorado to pick one side of a debated moral, scientific, and religious issue.
The Supreme Court, in an eight-to-one ruling, strikes down a ban on so-called conversion therapy for LGBTQ youth.
We speak to the attorney who successfully argued the case.
Congressman Eric Swalwell really doesn't want you to see those FBI files tied to his past with suspected Chinese spy, Fang Fang.
You're a billionaire, bro.
You can afford cost service.
We are very fortunate, ladies and gentlemen, that Tiger Woods hasn't killed somebody.
Tiger Woods speaks out for the first time since his latest DUI arrest on Friday.
And tonight, astronauts set to head back toward the moon for the first time in more than 50 years.
All that and more coming up in just a moment on your AM update.
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The Supreme Court yesterday in a major ruling for free speech, siding eight to one with Kaylee Chiles, a Christian counselor practicing talk therapy in Colorado, who challenged the state's ban on what it called conversion therapy.
In 2019, Colorado enacted its minor conversion therapy law, prohibiting licensed mental health professionals from engaging in what it defines as quote conversion therapy with patients under age 18.
The law, which targets therapists, defines that as an effort, quote, to change an individual's sexual orientation or gender identity, including efforts to change behaviors or gender expressions.
So if Chiles were to counsel a patient suffering from gender dysphoria who wanted affirmation of their transgender identity, that'd be just fine under this law.
But if Chiles were to counsel a gender-confused patient who sought to grow comfortable with his or her natural body and biological sex, it would be illegal.
Chiles challenged the law, a district court denying her request to block enforcement while her case moved forward through the system.
The 10th Circuit U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in a divided decision upholding the district court's rejection of Chiles' claim, applying what's known as the rational basis test, the most lenient standard in constitutional law, where a law will be upheld as long as it is rationally related to a legitimate government interest.
This allowed Colorado to continue blocking Chiles and other therapists from conducting talk therapy in a way that supported her clients seeking to become comfortable in their own bodies.
In October, the Alliance Defending Freedom on behalf of Chiles arguing before the High Court, this law crosses a constitutional line, banning speech relating to certain viewpoints while allowing others.
Yesterday, Chiles winning a resounding victory, eight out of the nine justices ruling for her, remanding this case back to the lower court and instructing it to apply strict scrutiny in evaluating this ban, the most exacting constitutional standard.
Writing for the majority, Justice Neil Gorsuch framing the issue as a narrow but critical one, whether Colorado's ban violates the First Amendment as applied to Chiles' counseling and whether the lower court used the wrong legal test in upholding it.
From the opinion, quote, consistent with the First Amendment's jealous protections for the individual's right to think and speak freely, this court has long held that laws regulating speech based on its subject matter or communicative content are presumptively unconstitutional.
Justice Gorsuch going on to write, quote, as a general rule, such content-based restrictions trigger strict scrutiny, a demanding standard that requires the government to prove its restriction on speech is narrowly tailored to serve compelling state interests.
Meaning, the 10th Circuit subjected this ban to too easy a test under a constitution that explicitly protects free speech from government control.
We spoke with ADF chief legal counsel Jim Campbell, who argued the case in front of the high court about what that higher strict scrutiny standard requires.
Because the Supreme Court has recognized that there's nothing more odious to the First Amendment than the idea that the government can pick and choose ideas and say some cannot be expressed and others can be.
And so whenever the government's engaged in viewpoint discrimination, the government has to meet a very, very high standard to justify silencing one view over another.
In fact, the Supreme Court has never upheld a law that engages in viewpoint-based censorship.
And every court that has considered laws like the one at issue here involving counseling restrictions and applied strict scrutiny, they have all found that those laws don't satisfy strict scrutiny.
And so the Supreme Court's decision today is the beginning of the end of applying these laws to silence counseling conversations between a counselor and their client.
At the center of the argument, whether what's happening in these sessions is actually speech or simply regulated medical conduct.
Campbell says the court made clear it is protected speech.
The Supreme Court said you can't play a word game under the First Amendment.
You can't look at something that is obviously just a conversation between two people, a counselor and a client, and relabel that conduct.
You have to recognize it for what it is, which is speech.
And once we recognize that it's speech, then First Amendment protection applies.
And once First Amendment protection applies, then the government can't engage in viewpoint discrimination because that's precisely what Colorado is doing here, discriminating based on viewpoints.
The First Amendment prevents the state from doing that.
In arguing this ban applied to medical conduct, Colorado's Solicitor General told the court, the medical community is in agreement that trans-identifying kids should only be affirmed in their gender confusion, or they will suffer severe harm.
At Oral Argument, Justice Alito pressing the state's Solicitor General on that, noting the medical consensus has been wrong before, like when we used to sterilize the, quote, feeble-minded.
More here from Campbell.
The so-called medical professionals don't always get it right.
We see that historically in that the professed experts have often been wrong throughout history, and eugenics is a great example of that.
Here, what we've seen in the area of so-called gender medicine is the professionals getting it wrong for many, many years.
They've been encouraging young people to pursue so-called medicalized transition where they're pursuing drugs and procedures in order to resolve gender dysphoria.
But the reality is, and what the best science now shows, is that what kids need is a listening ear, and they need the opportunity to talk through their feelings and their struggles.
And that's what licensed counselors like Kaylee Childs want to provide.
Campbell says the margin of the decision is significant, with nearly the entire court agreeing the law crosses a constitutional line.
It's an eight-to-one opinion because viewpoint discrimination is so problematic.
Almost the entire court recognized just how problematic it is.
For the state of Colorado to pick one side of a debated moral, scientific, and religious issue and to allow one side to speak in the counseling room, but not another side is a direct affront to the First Amendment.
And so that's why nearly the entire court came together and recognized that this law violates First Amendment principles.
As far as the lone dissenting vote, Liberal Justice Katanji Brown Jackson buying the argument that Colorado's law does not target speech, but regulates instead medical treatments, warning, quote, in the worst case scenario, our medical system unravels as various licensed health care professionals start broadly wielding their newfound constitutional right to provide substandard medical care.
Campbell reacts here.
Certainly, Justice Jackson didn't even persuade Justice Kagan or Justice Sotomayor of those views.
And that's because we have long regulated licensed professionals in this country, but we've never done so by silencing one view over another.
Laws like Colorado's are historical outliers.
These laws have not traditionally been in place because what we've allowed professionals to do is to have open dialogues with their clients.
What we haven't done historically as a society is pick and choose views and shut down the ones that we don't like.
And that's what the Supreme Court reacted against today.
And that's why the Supreme Court said that this law violates the First Amendment.
The case now returns to the lower courts where it will be reconsidered under that higher constitutional standard in the months ahead.
At least 20 other states have similar laws on their books.
Campbell predicts this ruling will significantly limit their enforcement.
Swalwell Blocks FBI File Release00:04:23
Democrat Congressman and candidate for California Governor Eric Swalwell sending a cease and desist letter to FBI Director Kash Patel, seeking to block the release of files tied to his past contact with a suspected Chinese intelligence operative, according to the Washington Post.
Axios reporting in 2020, Christine Fang, otherwise known as Fang Fang, allegedly courting Swalwell and other politicians from 2011 to 2015.
Fang Fang cultivating romantic relationships with at least two Midwestern mayors, despite persistent rumors, no romantic relationship was publicly confirmed between Fang Fang and Swalwell.
Authorities approaching Mr. Swalwell's office in 2015, warning of Fang's suspected ties to China, at which point his office says contact was immediately cut off.
The FBI at the time not accusing the congressman of any wrongdoing.
A subsequent House Ethics Committee investigation into the matter concluding in 2023 with no action taken against Swalwell.
The Washington Post reporting over the weekend that Director Patel, quote, dispatched agents to review and redact the files in a potential move to ready them for public release.
In a copy of the letter reviewed by The Post, attorneys Sean Hecker and Norman Eisen argue releasing the files would violate federal privacy law, raise First Amendment concerns, and run counter to Justice Department rules meant to avoid influencing elections.
From the letter, quote, the congressman has never been accused of wrongdoing in that matter, and your attempt to release the file is a transparent attempt to smear him and undermine his campaign for governor of California.
Your actions threaten to expose you, others at the FBI, and the FBI itself to significant legal liability.
Congressman Swalwell at a Monday press conference addressing the matter.
The brave investigative revelations this weekend in the Washington Post and New York Times aren't just news stories.
They're a diagnosis of a sickness of a great Washington rot.
They detail an effort by the federal government to manufacture deceit, to crush a campaign not with arguments, but with bruised purple fists of power.
The president dreams of a servant in Sacramento, a Western White House.
But unfortunately for him, our campaign is winning.
Trump and Patel are trying to interfere in the California election.
This case is closed.
The Bureau said over 10 years ago, all we did was help.
But this effort to weaponize the FBI against the president's political enemy at a time that we are at war shows a distraction.
California's open primary set for June 2nd with early voting beginning on May 5th.
Under that system, the top two vote-getters advanced in November's general election, regardless of party.
According to the Real Clear Politics average of all polls, Republican Steve Hilton leads the pack with 14.7%.
Congressman Swalwell in second with 13.7%, followed by another Republican, Chad Bianco, who has 13%.
Democrat Katie Porter at 11.3.
And Democrat Tom Steyer at 10.3%.
The release of potentially damaging or embarrassing material could shift Swalwell's standing in the race and raise the possibility that the top two candidates advancing to November could both be Republicans.
For now, the FBI has not responded publicly to the letter and it remains unclear whether the documents will be released.
Coming up, Tiger Woods speaks out for the first time following his rollover car crash last week.
And tonight, NASA preparing to send astronauts back toward the moon for the first time in half a century.
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Tiger Woods commenting for the first time on his rollover car crash.
Woods crashing his SUV Friday afternoon on Jupiter Island, Florida, just minutes from his home.
Police arresting the 50-year-old golf legend on suspicion of misdemeanor DUI with property damage and refusal to submit to a lawful urine test.
A breathalyzer test at the scene showing no signs of alcohol, but Woods refusing a urinalysis.
According to an arrest affidavit obtained by TMZ Sports, deputies finding two white pills in Woods' pocket identified as the opioid painkiller hydrocodone.
After the crash, a deputy noting Woods was sweating profusely despite sitting in an air-conditioned vehicle.
The deputy also describing Woods as, quote, lethargic and slow, showing, quote, severe signs of impairment.
His eyes bloodshot and glassy, his pupils extremely dilated.
When asked about prescription medication, Woods replying, quote, I take a few, saying he had taken some earlier in the morning.
Woods telling authorities he has undergone seven back surgeries and more than 20 operations on his right leg, which almost had to be amputated after a similar car crash back in 2021.
Woods saying to police he was distracted at the time of the crash, looking at his phone and changing the radio, failing to notice a slowing vehicle ahead.
Attempting to swerve, Woods clipped the truck in front of him, sending his own vehicle rolling, resulting in about $5,000 worth of damages to the other vehicle.
No other injuries were reported.
Woods reportedly struggling through the field sobriety test, limping due to apparent injury.
At the jail, a breathalyzer test again showing no sign of alcohol per TMZ.
ESPN reporting Woods was brought to a hospital for treatment before being returned to jail, released Friday night on $1,000 bond.
Court records filed yesterday showing Woods waiving arraignment, entering a plea of not guilty and demanding a trial by jury.
It's unclear when he will be in court next.
The accident marking Woods' fourth crash and second DUI since 2009.
In his 2017 DUI arrest, the toxicology report showing hydrocodone as one of multiple drugs in his system.
Sports analyst Stephen A. Smith on his Monday podcast saying what we're all thinking.
You're a billionaire, bro.
You can afford car service.
We are very fortunate, ladies and gentlemen, that Tiger Woods hasn't killed somebody yet.
But how forgiving as a society are we supposed to be with this proclivity or tendency that you have to get behind the wheel of a car when you inebriate it?
Oh, we're not going to be satisfied until he kills somebody?
Bro, you can afford car service.
I don't think it's too far-fetched for somebody to say to Tiger Woods, could you please stop getting behind the wheel of your vehicles?
That's my issue with Tiger Woods.
I hope whatever addiction that he has, that he overcomes it.
God bless him and his family.
All I'm asking for.
Could you order a car service, please?
Reporting from People magazine suggesting Woods refuses to hire a driver because he is concerned about his privacy, the very name of Tiger's mega yacht.
A source telling the outlet Woods, quote, doesn't want anyone to watch over him or know what he is doing, and he thinks he's fine to drive.
Woods posting a statement to social media yesterday, reading, quote, I know and understand the seriousness of the situation I find myself in today.
Astronauts Return to the Moon00:03:34
I'm stepping away for a period of time to seek treatment and focus on my health.
This is necessary in order for me to prioritize my well-being and work toward lasting recovery.
Just days before the crash, Woods had hinted at plans to play in next week's Masters Tournament.
We certainly hope he'll be in rehab instead.
Tonight, for the first time in more than 50 years, a crew of astronauts set to travel toward the moon.
NASA's Artemis II mission scheduled to lift off this evening at 6:24 p.m. Eastern, launching astronauts Reed Wiseman, Victor Glover, and Christina Cook, alongside Canadian Space Agency astronaut Jeremy Hansen on a 10-day deep space flight.
The crew departing from Kennedy Space Center in Florida aboard NASA's 32-story Space Launch System Rocket, or SLS, the first time the agency's new lunar program will carry people.
They'll begin by orbiting Earth, testing critical onboard systems, including life support, communications, and navigation, reports NPR, before attempting the journey into deep space.
If those systems perform as expected, the crew will embark on its journey, a looping figure-eight path around the moon, traveling more than 230,000 miles from Earth.
There will be no lunar landing on this mission, with the astronauts expected to pass roughly 4,000 to 6,000 miles above the moon's surface before turning back toward Earth.
The full trip expected to last about 10 days, ending with a planned splashdown in the Pacific Ocean.
The mission originally planned to lift off in February, but a series of hydrogen fuel leaks and other issues forcing delays until now.
Weather remains a key variable, with current forecasts showing about an 80% chance of favorable conditions, though NASA has a rolling launch window through the first week of April, meaning any last-minute concerns could push the launch to another day within the window.
Senior NASA test director Jeff Spaulding, speaking at a press conference yesterday about the mood on the ground.
Well, the people that I get the pleasure to work with and talk with are extremely excited.
We have a large mix of young and more seasoned people like myself.
And as such, everybody understands the significance of this mission, and especially the flight crew.
But the team that I get to work with, they come in every day and people are concerned sometimes that we are working so hard towards these milestones and things, but there really isn't.
People love coming to work.
They love doing this job.
And that's why they're here.
And they work through it every single day to get us to this point.
I think everybody understands what our mission is, and that's to get back to the moon.
And we're going to establish a presence there in the very near future.
The mission serving as a critical step toward returning astronauts to the lunar surface and ultimately building a permanent base on the moon.
As of now, NASA expects to return humans to the moon by 2028.
Among those they've invited on the next flight, your humble correspondent.
Yes, they found out I had been and recruited me as their latest astronaut.
April fools, of course.
And speaking of fools, Gail King wasn't invited either, though they did invite me to witness the launch tonight.
But sadly, I could not swing it.
Don't call it a ride.
And that'll do it for your AM update.
I'm Megan Kelly.
Join me back here for the MK Show, live on Sirius XM's The Megan Kelly Channel 111 at New East, on youtube.com/slash Megan Kelly, and on all Podcast platforms.