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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 was the one to bring the challenge.
Written by Adam Liptak
Updating from the capital
The case concerning transgender rights that the justices are reviewing on Wednesday is titled United States v. Skrmetti, which indicates that it is a legal dispute 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 stance that a Tennessee law restricting certain medical treatments for transgender minors goes against the Constitution.
Typically, this would indicate that the justices would not have any issues left to resolve, since both parties would then acknowledge that the law is constitutional.
In 2017, a similar situation occurred when President-elect Donald J. Trump took office. In March of that year, the Supreme Court decided to dismiss a case that involved the rights of transgender students. This decision came after the Trump administration changed its stance on the issue. The case in question was about a transgender boy from Virginia who wanted to use the boys’ bathroom at his high school.
However, there is a complication in this situation. The Tennessee law was originally contested by three families and a doctor, with the Biden administration stepping in to support them. Both the families and the government submitted their own requests for review by the Supreme Court, but only the government’s petition was accepted by the justices.
Instead of rejecting the case outright, the court has the option to approve a petition that was filed later. The court may decide to listen to a new argument or use the one presented on Wednesday by Chase Strangio from the ACLU and Elizabeth B. Prelogar, the U.S. solicitor general, who is representing the Biden administration.
In the past, new administrations typically made few changes to their positions. The Obama administration, for example, did not switch positions on any cases when it took office. However, the first Trump administration was more daring, changing positions in four significant cases during its first full Supreme Court term. These cases involved workers’ rights and voting rolls, and the administration was successful in all four instances.
The Biden administration had no hesitation in changing their stance on various issues. They rejected the methods used by the Trump administration five times, but ended up losing four of those cases, as reported by Thomas Wolf from the Brennan Center for Justice.
Adam Liptak reports on news related to the Supreme Court and writes a regular column called Sidebar about legal changes. He graduated from Yale Law School and worked as a lawyer for 14 years before starting at The New York Times in 2002. For additional information about Adam Liptak, click here.
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