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If the Trump Administration changes its stance on the case, it could impact the outcome of the Supreme Court’s decision since the government initially brought the challenge.
Written by Adam Liptak
Writing from the city
The case being heard by the justices on Wednesday is focused on trans rights and is known as United States v. Skrmetti, which indicates that it is a legal challenge initiated by the federal government.
Next month, there will be a change in government leadership, 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 there would be no further decisions needed from the judges, as both parties would be in agreement that the law is constitutional.
In 2017, a similar situation occurred when President-elect Donald J. Trump assumed office. In March of that year, the Supreme Court decided to dismiss a case regarding the rights of transgender students, specifically focusing on a transgender boy in Virginia who wanted to use the boys’ bathroom at his high school. This decision came after the Trump administration changed its stance on the issue.
However, there is a complication in this situation. The Tennessee law was first challenged 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 the Supreme Court to review the case, but the justices decided to only accept the petition from the government.
Instead of immediately rejecting the case, the court has the option to approve the companion petition at a later date. The court might choose to listen to a different argument, or it may refer back to 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. The Obama administration, for example, did not alter any positions upon taking office. However, the first Trump administration took a more bold approach by changing positions in four significant cases during its first full Supreme Court term. These changes included shifts on workers’ rights and voting rolls, and the administration ultimately succeeded in all four cases.
The Biden administration has been willing to change its stance on various issues, distancing itself from the policies of the previous administration. In five instances where they did this, they ended up losing in court 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 that focuses on legal news. He attended 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 profile.
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