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If the Trump Administration changes its stance on the case, it could impact the outcome of the case before the Supreme Court because the government is the one who originally brought the challenge.
Written by Adam Liptak
Updating from the capital
The case being heard by the justices on Wednesday regarding trans rights is known as United States v. Skrmetti, indicating that it is a legal challenge initiated by the federal government.
However, the upcoming change in government control will likely result in the Trump administration rejecting the Biden administration’s claim that a Tennessee law prohibiting certain medical treatments for transgender minors goes against the Constitution.
Typically, if both parties agree that a law is constitutional, there would be no need for the justices to make a decision on the matter.
In 2017, a similar situation occurred when President-elect Donald J. Trump was inaugurated. 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 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 first challenged by three families and a doctor, with the Biden administration stepping in to support them. Both the families and the government submitted requests for the Supreme Court to review the case, but the justices decided to only accept the petition from the government.
Instead of immediately rejecting the case, the court has the option to approve the companion petition at a later time. The court may choose to consider a new argument or refer back to the one presented on Wednesday by Chase Strangio from the ACLU and Elizabeth B. Prelogar from the U.S. solicitor general, who is representing the Biden administration.
Previous administrations typically made few changes to their positions. For example, when the Obama administration took office, they did not change positions in any cases. However, the first Trump administration was more daring in this regard. 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 were successful in all four cases.
The Biden administration did not hesitate to change their stances on issues that differed from the Trump administration. This led to them rejecting the approaches taken by the Trump administration in five cases, with four of those cases resulting in losses, 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 focusing on legal news. He attended Yale Law School and worked as a lawyer for 14 years before starting at The New York Times in 2002. Learn more about Adam Liptak.
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