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What will occur with the lawsuit if the Trump Administration changes its position? The outcome of the case before the Supreme Court could be impacted by the change in leadership within the federal government, as they were the ones who initiated the challenge.
Written by Adam Liptak.
Reporting live from the
The case being heard by the justices on Wednesday involves trans rights and is known as United States v. Skrmetti, indicating that it is a legal dispute initiated by the federal government.
However, the government will shift control next month, and it is highly likely that the Trump administration will reject the Biden administration’s claim that a Tennessee law restricting certain medical treatments for transgender minors goes against the Constitution.
Typically, this would indicate that there would be no further need for the justices to make a decision, as both parties would agree that the law is constitutional.
In 2017, there was a situation where President-elect Donald J. Trump had taken office. In March of that year, the Trump administration changed its stance on the rights of transgender students. As a result, the Supreme Court decided to not proceed with a case involving 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 initially challenged the Tennessee law, with the Biden administration stepping in to support them. Both the families and the government submitted their own requests for the Supreme Court to review the case, but the justices only accepted the government’s petition.
Instead of rejecting the case, the court has the option to approve the companion petition at a later stage. They may choose to listen to a new argument, or they could stick with 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.
In the past, new administrations typically made few changes to their positions. For example, the Obama administration did not alter any positions when it took office. On the other hand, the first Trump administration made significant changes by switching positions in four major cases during its first full Supreme Court term. These changes included workers’ rights and voting rolls, and the administration succeeded in all four cases.
The Biden administration did not hesitate to change its stance on certain issues. They rejected the policies of the previous Trump administration in five instances, but 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 the Supreme Court and writes a column called Sidebar about legal news. He graduated from Yale Law School and worked as a lawyer for 14 years before beginning his career at The New York Times in 2002.
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