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If the Trump Administration changes its stance, it could impact the outcome of the case that was brought before the Supreme Court by the federal government.
Written by Adam Liptak
Writing from the city
The case being discussed in front of the judges on Wednesday involves trans rights and is known as United States v. Skrmetti. This case involves a challenge brought by the federal government.
However, the government will be under different leadership next month, 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 imply that there is no longer a need for the judges to make a decision, since both parties would agree that the law is constitutional.
A similar situation occurred in 2017 when President-elect Donald J. Trump began his term in 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 originally about whether a transgender boy in Virginia should be allowed to use the boys’ bathroom at his high school.
However, there is a complication in this situation. Three families and a doctor first challenged the Tennessee law, with the Biden administration stepping in to support them. Both the families and the government submitted separate requests for the Supreme Court to review the case, and the justices chose 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 consider additional arguments or choose to stick with the ones presented on Wednesday by Chase Strangio from the ACLU and Elizabeth B. Prelogar, who is representing the Biden administration as the U.S. solicitor general.
In the past, new administrations would rarely change their positions on issues. For example, the Obama administration did not change any positions when it took office. However, the first Trump administration was more bold and changed positions in four major cases during its first full Supreme Court term. These cases involved workers’ rights and voting rolls, and the administration was successful in all four cases.
The Biden administration was not hesitant to change its stance on issues, as shown by disavowing the strategies of the previous 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 covering news related to the Supreme Court and writes a column called Sidebar that focuses on legal updates. He obtained his law degree from Yale Law School and worked as a lawyer for 14 years before starting his career at The New York Times in 2002. To learn more about Adam L
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