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If the Trump Administration changes its position, it could impact the outcome of the case before the Supreme Court, as the federal government is the one who initiated the challenge.
Written by Adam Liptak
Writing from the nation
The case being reviewed by the judges 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.
The government will undergo a change in control next month, and it is highly likely that the Trump administration will reject the Biden administration’s claim that a Tennessee law restricting certain medical treatments for transgender minors goes against the Constitution.
Typically, this would indicate that there would be no further decisions for the judges to make, since both parties would then 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 decided to dismiss a case regarding the rights of transgender students after the Trump administration changed its stance. The case was about a transgender boy in Virginia wanting to use the boys’ bathroom at his high school.
However, there is a complication in this situation. Three families and a doctor were the first to challenge the Tennessee law, and the Biden administration joined their side. Both the families and the government submitted their own requests for the Supreme Court to review the case, but the justices only accepted the petition from the government.
Instead of throwing out the case, the court might decide to approve the companion petition at a later time. They could consider a different argument, or they could stick to the one presented on Wednesday by lawyer Chase Strangio from the ACLU and U.S. solicitor general Elizabeth B. Prelogar, who is representing the Biden administration.
Historically, new administrations have been cautious about changing positions. For example, the Obama administration did not change any positions when it took office. In contrast, the first Trump administration was more daring, changing positions in four significant cases during its first full Supreme Court term. These cases included workers’ rights and voting rolls, with the administration ultimately succeeding in all four.
The Biden administration confidently changed stances on various issues, distancing itself from the Trump administration’s methods five times. 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 reports on the Supreme Court and writes a column called Sidebar about legal news. He went to Yale Law School and worked as a lawyer for 14 years before starting at The New York Times in 2002. You can find out more about Adam Liptak on his profile.
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