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What will occur with the case if the Trump Administration changes its position? Because the federal government initiated the challenge, a shift in administration could impact its outcome in front of the Supreme Court.
Written by Adam Liptak
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The case being heard by the justices on Wednesday concerns transgender rights and is known as United States v. Skrmetti, indicating that it is a legal dispute initiated by the federal government.
The government’s control 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 suggest that there would be no more issues for the judges to resolve, since both parties would agree that the law is constitutional.
In 2017, a similar situation occurred when President-elect Donald J. Trump was inaugurated. In March of that year, the Supreme Court decided to dismiss a case involving the rights of transgender students, following a change in policy by the Trump administration. The case had originally been about whether a transgender boy in Virginia should be allowed to use the boys’ bathroom at his high school.
However, there is a complication in this situation. Three families and a doctor first brought a challenge to the Tennessee law, with the Biden administration supporting their side. Both the families and the government submitted requests for the Supreme Court to review the case, but only the government’s petition was accepted by the justices.
Instead of immediately rejecting the case, the court has the option to approve the companion petition at a later time. This could involve listening to a new argument or referring back to the one presented on Wednesday by Chase Strangio from the ACLU and Elizabeth B. Prelogar from the Biden administration.
In the past, new administrations typically did not make many changes to existing positions. However, the Trump administration was more bold in its approach, altering positions in four significant cases during its first Supreme Court term. These changes included issues related to workers’ rights and voting rolls, and the administration emerged victorious in all four cases.
The Biden administration did not hesitate to change its stance on certain issues. It rejected the methods used by the previous Trump administration in five instances, and ultimately lost four of those cases, as reported by Thomas Wolf from the Brennan Center for Justice.
Adam Liptak writes about the Supreme Court and pens a column called Sidebar, focusing 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. For more information about Adam Liptak, click here.
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