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If the Trump Administration changes sides on the case, it could impact the outcome of the case before the Supreme Court because the federal government initiated the challenge.
Written by Adam Liptak
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The case being discussed by the justices on Wednesday involves trans rights and is known as United States v. Skrmetti. This indicates that the challenge is being pursued by the federal government.
Next month, the government’s control will shift, and it is highly likely that the Trump administration will reject the Biden administration’s claim that a Tennessee law restricting certain medical treatments for transgender minors goes against the Constitution.
This would typically indicate that there would be no further decisions for the judges to make, since both parties would then acknowledge that the law was in line with the constitution.
A similar situation occurred in 2017 when President-elect Donald J. Trump was inaugurated. In March of that year, the Trump administration changed its stance on the rights of transgender students, resulting in the Supreme Court dropping a case involving 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 first challenged by three families and a doctor, with the Biden administration supporting their side. Both the families and the government submitted separate 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. They may choose to listen to a new argument or refer back to the one presented on Wednesday by Chase Strangio from the ACLU and Elizabeth B. Prelogar from the U.S. solicitor general on behalf of the Biden administration.
In the past, new administrations typically made few changes to their positions. For example, the Obama administration did not change any positions when it took office. However, the first Trump administration was more daring in this regard. It changed positions in four significant cases during its first full term in the Supreme Court, including cases related to workers’ rights and voting rolls, and it succeeded in all four instances.
The Biden administration was not hesitant to change its stance on certain issues. They rejected the approaches taken by the Trump administration five times, but were unsuccessful in four of those cases, as reported by Thomas Wolf from the Brennan Center for Justice.
Adam Liptak writes about the Supreme Court and writes a column called Sidebar that discusses 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. For more information about Adam Liptak, visit his profile.
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