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If the Trump Administration changes its stance on the case, it could impact the future of the case before the Supreme Court because the federal government originally brought the challenge.
Written by Adam Liptak
Reporting from the nation
The case being discussed in front of the judges on Wednesday is known as United States v. Skrmetti, which signifies that it involves a legal challenge initiated by the federal government.
Next month, there will be a change in government control, and it is likely that the Trump administration will reject the argument made by the Biden administration that a Tennessee law restricting certain medical treatments for transgender minors goes against the Constitution.
This typically indicates that the justices would not have to make a decision, as both parties would agree that the law was constitutional.
In 2017, when President-elect Donald J. Trump began his term, a similar situation occurred. The Trump administration changed its stance on the rights of transgender students, leading the Supreme Court to drop a case it had planned to rule on. The case involved a transgender boy in Virginia seeking permission to use the boys’ bathroom at his high school.
However, there is a complication. 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 separate requests for review by the Supreme Court, and only the government’s petition was accepted by the justices.
Instead of rejecting the case outright, 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 it may base its decision on the one presented on Wednesday by Chase Strangio of the ACLU and Elizabeth B. Prelogar, the U.S. solicitor general, who is representing the Biden administration.
In the past, new administrations rarely changed their positions. Unlike the Obama administration, which maintained its stance on all cases when taking office, the first Trump administration was more daring. It altered its positions in four significant cases during its first full term in the Supreme Court, such as workers’ rights and voting rolls, and won all four cases.
The Biden administration has not been hesitant to change its stance on various issues. It rejected the methods used by the previous Trump administration in five instances, and in four of those cases, they were unsuccessful, 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 updates. He attended Yale Law School and worked as a lawyer for 14 years before starting his career at The New York Times in 2002.
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