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What will occur with the case if the Trump Administration changes its stance? The outcome of the case before the Supreme Court may be impacted by the change in administration since the federal government initiated the challenge.
Written by Adam Liptak
Writing from the nation
The case being discussed in front of the judges on Wednesday involves transgender rights and is known as United States v. Skrmetti. This means that the challenge is being brought forward by the federal government.
The government will be under new leadership next month, and it is likely that the Trump administration will reject the Biden administration’s stance that a Tennessee law restricting certain medical treatments for transgender minors goes against the Constitution.
Typically, this would imply that there would be no need for the justices to make a decision, since both parties would agree that the law was constitutional.
In 2017, a similar situation occurred when President-elect Donald J. Trump assumed office. In March of that year, the Supreme Court dropped a case involving the rights of transgender students after the Trump administration changed its stance. The case was about a transgender boy from Virginia who wanted to use the boys’ bathroom at his high school.
However, there is a complication in this situation. Three families and a doctor were the ones who first challenged the Tennessee law, with the Biden administration joining them in support. Both the families and the government submitted requests for the Supreme Court to review the case, but only the government’s petition was accepted by the justices.
Instead of immediately closing the case, the court has the option to approve the companion petition late. The court has the choice to listen to a new argument or use the one presented on Wednesday by Chase Strangio from the ACLU and Elizabeth B. Prelogar, the U.S. solicitor general, who is representing the Biden administration.
In the past, new administrations typically made few changes to their positions. The Obama administration, for example, did not change any positions when it took office. However, the first Trump administration was more daring. It changed positions in four significant cases during its first full Supreme Court term, including those related to workers’ rights and voting rolls, and it succeeded in all four cases.
The Biden administration did not hesitate to change its stance on various issues. It rejected the methods used by the Trump administration on five occasions, but ended up losing in four of those instances, as noted by Thomas Wolf from the Brennan Center for Justice.
Adam Liptak is a journalist who specializes in reporting on the Supreme Court and legal news. He has a law degree from Yale Law School and worked as a lawyer for 14 years before starting his career at The New York Times in 2002. For more information about Adam Liptak, you can visit his profile.
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