Based on oral arguments this week, the Supreme Court’s conservative majority seems likely to hold that the First Amendment protects so-called conversion therapy for gay and transgender minors when it is conducted entirely through conversation.

A judge on Thursday watched several hours of video of four girls telling how they were bound and blindfolded by a speech pathologist who made them kneel and take something variously described as “squishy” and “long” into their mouths as part of a “test.

Counseling mentally distressed people so they can be comfortable with the body in which they were born sounds like a compassionate choice for a therapist.

Communication Prof. David Catlin and Communication Prof. Elisha Boxer Magnifico first met by reaching for the same pastry at a faculty mixer. The chance encounter eventually led to a quarterly program dedicated to forming a supportive community for teens and tweens who stutter using improv.

Whether speech pathologist Mark Gridley did something criminal when he pulled seven young girls out of class and allegedly tied their hands and blindfolded them as he subjected them to a speech “test” remains to be seen,