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If the Trump administration changes its stance on the case, it could have an impact on its outcome before the Supreme Court, as the federal government is the one who initiated the challenge.
Written by Adam Liptak
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The legal case regarding transgender rights being discussed by the justices on Wednesday is known as United States v. Skrmetti, indicating that it is a lawsuit initiated by the federal government.
However, the government’s leadership will shift next month, and it is highly 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 would be no need for the justices to make a decision, since both parties would agree that the law is constitutional.
In 2017, a situation like this occurred when President-elect Donald J. Trump came into power. In March of that year, the Supreme Court decided not to address a case about the rights of transgender students after the Trump administration changed their stance. The case involved 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 were the original challengers of the Tennessee law, with the Biden administration joining them in their challenge. Both the families and the government submitted different requests for the Supreme Court to review the case, but the justices only accepted the government’s petition.
Instead of throwing out the case, the court has the option to approve the companion petition at a later time. The court may choose to listen to a different argument or use the one presented on Wednesday by Chase Strangio from the ACLU and Elizabeth B. Prelogar from the U.S. solicitor general’s office, who is representing the Biden administration.
In the past, new administrations typically made few changes to existing positions. However, the Trump administration was more aggressive in this regard, changing positions in four significant cases during its first full Supreme Court term. These changes included stances on workers’ rights and voting rolls, and the administration succeeded in all four cases.
The Biden administration was not hesitant to change its stance on issues, as shown by its rejection of the Trump administration’s approaches in five instances. However, out of these five cases, it lost in four of them, as reported by Thomas Wolf from the Brennan Center for Justice.
Adam Liptak is a journalist who reports on the activities of the Supreme Court and writes a regular column called Sidebar about legal updates. He studied at Yale Law School and worked as a lawyer for 14 years before starting at The New York Times in 2002. For further information about Adam Liptak, click here.
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