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If the Trump Administration changes its stance, 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
Live from the nation
The legal case being heard by the judges on Wednesday involves trans rights and is known as United States v. Skrmetti, indicating that it was initiated by the federal government.
Next month, there will be a change in government control, and it is highly likely that the Trump administration will reject the argument made by the Biden administration that a Tennessee law prohibiting certain medical treatments for transgender minors goes against the Constitution.
Typically, if both parties agree that a law is constitutional, there would be no need for the justices to make a decision on the matter.
In 2017, a similar situation occurred when President-elect Donald J. Trump began his term. In March of that year, the Supreme Court chose not to rule on a case involving the rights of transgender students. This decision came after the Trump administration changed its stance on the issue, specifically regarding 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 ones who first challenged the Tennessee law, with the Biden administration stepping in to support them. Both the families and the government submitted requests for the Supreme Court to review the case, but the justices only accepted the petition from the government.
Instead of throwing out the case, the court has the option to approve the companion petition at a later time. They may choose to listen to a different 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’s office representing the Biden administration.
Previous administrations typically did not change positions often. For example, when Barack Obama took office, his administration did not switch positions on any cases. However, the first term of the Trump administration was more daring in this regard. They changed positions in four significant cases during their first full Supreme Court term, such as those concerning workers’ rights and voting rolls, and they won all four cases.
The Biden administration was not hesitant to change their stance on certain issues, distancing themselves from the policies of the previous Trump administration. This shift in position led to losses in four out of five 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, which focuses on legal news. He graduated from Yale Law School and worked as a lawyer for 14 years before starting at The New York Times in 2002. You can find out more about Adam Liptak on his personal
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