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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 federal government is the one who brought the challenge.
Written by Adam Liptak.
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The case being heard by the justices on Wednesday is about trans rights and is known as United States v. Skrmetti. This case involves a challenge brought forth by the federal government.
Next month, there will be a change in government leadership, and it is likely that the Trump administration will reject 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 there is no longer any need for the judges to make a decision, as both parties would then acknowledge that the law is constitutional.
In 2017, a similar situation occurred when President-elect Donald J. Trump took office. In March of that year, the Supreme Court decided to dismiss a case involving 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 initially 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, and the justices decided to only accept the petition from the government.
Instead of immediately rejecting the case, the court may choose to approve the companion petition at a later date. The court has the option 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 representing the Biden administration, will present their arguments on behalf of the families.
In the past, new administrations typically made few changes to existing positions. However, the Obama administration did not change any positions when it took office. The first Trump administration, on the other hand, was more daring and changed positions in four significant cases during its first full Supreme Court term. These cases included workers’ rights and voting rolls, and the administration was successful in all four.
The Biden administration did not hesitate to change its stance on issues previously supported by the Trump administration. In five instances, it disowned the approaches taken by the previous administration, but only succeeded in four of those cases, as reported by Thomas Wolf from the Brennan Center for Justice.
Adam Liptak is a journalist who specializes in covering news related to the Supreme Court and writes a column called Sidebar that focuses on legal updates. He attended Yale Law School and worked as a lawyer for 14 years before starting at The New York Times in 2002.
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