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If the Trump Administration changes its position on the case, it could potentially impact the outcome of the case before the Supreme Court because the federal government is the one who initiated the challenge.
Written by Adam Liptak
News coverage from the
The case being heard by the justices on Wednesday involves transgender rights and is known as United States v. Skrmetti, indicating that it is a legal dispute initiated by the federal government.
Next month, there will be a change in government control, and it is highly likely that the Trump administration will reject the Biden administration’s stance that a Tennessee law preventing certain medical treatments for transgender minors is unconstitutional.
Typically, this would indicate that there is no longer any need for the judges to make a decision, since both parties would agree that the law was in line with the constitution.
In 2017, a situation occurred when President-elect Donald J. Trump took office. In March of that year, the Trump administration changed its stance on the rights of transgender students, leading to the Supreme Court dropping a case involving a transgender boy in Virginia and his right 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 initially challenged the Tennessee law, with the Biden administration stepping in to support them. Both the families and the government submitted their own requests for the Supreme Court to review the case, but only the government’s petition was accepted by the justices.
Instead of immediately rejecting the case, the court has the option to approve the companion petition at a later time. They may choose to listen to a new argument, or they could use the one presented on Wednesday by Chase Strangio from the American Civil Liberties Union and Elizabeth B. Prelogar from the U.S. solicitor general, who is representing the Biden administration.
In the past, new administrations would rarely change their positions. For example, when Obama took office, there were no changes in positions. However, the first Trump administration was more daring. They changed positions in four significant cases during their first full term in the Supreme Court, including issues related to workers’ rights and voting rolls, and they won all four cases.
The Biden administration openly changed its stance on policies previously implemented by the Trump administration on five occasions. In four of these instances, they were unsuccessful in defending their new positions, as reported by Thomas Wolf from the Brennan Center for Justice.
Adam Liptak is a journalist who reports on the Supreme Court and writes a column called Sidebar, which discusses legal news. He graduated from Yale Law School and worked as a lawyer for 14 years before starting at The Times in 2002. For more information about Adam Liptak, click here.
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