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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 initially brought the challenge.
Written by Adam Liptak
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The case being heard by the justices on Wednesday regarding trans rights is called United States v. Skrmetti, indicating that it is a challenge initiated by the federal government.
However, the government’s control is expected to shift next month, which will likely result in the Trump administration rejecting the Biden administration’s claim that a Tennessee law prohibiting certain medical treatments for transgender minors is unconstitutional.
Typically, this would indicate that there would be no need for the judges to make a decision, since both parties would agree that the law is constitutional.
In a similar incident in 2017, President-elect Donald J. Trump’s administration changed its stance on transgender students’ rights, leading to the Supreme Court dropping a case involving a transgender boy in Virginia wanting to use the boys’ bathroom at his high school.
However, there is a complicating factor in this situation. Three families and a doctor initially challenged the Tennessee law, with the Biden administration supporting them. Both the families and the government submitted requests for the Supreme Court to review the case, but the justices chose to only accept the petition from the government.
Instead of throwing out the case, the court may choose to approve the companion petition at a later time. They could consider a new argument or use the one presented on Wednesday by Chase Strangio from the ACLU and Elizabeth B. Prelogar from the U.S. solicitor general on behalf of the Biden administration.
In the past, new administrations typically made minimal changes to positions. Unlike the Obama administration, which kept positions unchanged upon taking office, the first Trump administration took a more daring approach. It altered positions in four significant cases during its first full term in the Supreme Court, such as those regarding workers’ rights and voting rolls, and successfully won all four cases.
The Biden administration did not hesitate to change its stance on certain issues. It rejected the strategies used by the Trump administration in five instances, but ended up losing 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, which focuses on legal developments. He attended 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 Liptak,
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