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If the Trump Administration changes its position on a case, it could impact the outcome of the case in the Supreme Court because the federal government is the one who initially brought the challenge.
Written by Adam Liptak
Writing from the nation
The case being discussed by the justices on Wednesday involves trans rights and is known as United States v. Skrmetti. This indicates that it is a legal challenge initiated by the federal government.
However, the government will be under new leadership next month, and it is highly likely that the Trump administration will not support the Biden administration’s claim that a Tennessee law prohibiting certain medical treatments for transgender minors goes against the Constitution.
Typically, this would indicate that the judges would have nothing further to determine, since both parties would agree that the law is 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 who wanted to use the boys’ bathroom at his high school.
However, there is a complication in this situation. Three families and a doctor originally challenged the Tennessee law, with the Biden administration joining their side. Both the families and the government submitted separate 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 at a later time. The court may choose to listen to a new argument or refer back to the one presented on Wednesday, where Chase Strangio from the ACLU and Elizabeth B. Prelogar, the U.S. solicitor general for the Biden administration, will be arguing on behalf of the families.
In the past, new administrations rarely changed their positions on issues. Unlike the Obama administration, which kept its positions consistent when taking office, the first Trump administration took a more bold approach. It changed positions on four major cases during its first full Supreme Court term, including issues related to workers’ rights and voting rolls, and was successful in all four cases.
The Biden administration did not hesitate to change its stance on various issues. In total, they rejected the approaches taken by the Trump administration in five instances, and ended up losing in four of those cases. This information was gathered 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. For more information about Adam Liptak, visit his profile.
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