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If the Trump Administration changes its position on the case, it could impact the outcome of the case before the Supreme Court since the federal government is the one challenging it.
Written by Adam Liptak
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The case being discussed by the justices on Wednesday is known as United States v. Skrmetti, indicating that it is a legal dispute initiated by the federal government regarding transgender rights.
However, the government’s control is set to shift next month, and it is expected 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.
In usual circumstances, this would indicate that there would be no need for the judges 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 began his term. In March of that year, the Supreme Court decided to dismiss a case regarding the rights of transgender students after the Trump administration changed its stance. The case involved a transgender boy in Virginia who wanted to use the boys’ bathroom at his high school.
However, there is a complication in this situation. The Tennessee law was contested by three families and a doctor, and the Biden administration joined in support of them. 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 rejecting the case, the court has the option to accept the companion petition at a later time. The court may choose to listen to a new argument or use the one presented on Wednesday, where a lawyer from the American Civil Liberties Union, Chase Strangio, will argue with Elizabeth B. Prelogar, the U.S. solicitor general, who is representing the Biden administration.
In the past, new administrations rarely changed their positions. For example, the Obama administration did not change any positions when it took office. However, the first Trump administration was more daring. It changed positions in four major cases during its first full Supreme Court term, including cases on workers’ rights and voting rolls, and it won all four cases.
The Biden administration did not hesitate to change positions, openly rejecting the methods used by the Trump administration in five instances. However, they were unsuccessful in four of those cases, as reported 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 for Sidebar column. He attended 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 on Adam Liptak, please visit his profile.
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