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If the Trump Administration changes its position on the case, it could impact the outcome of the case before the Supreme Court because the federal government is the one who brought the challenge.
Written by Adam Liptak
Reporting live from the
The case being heard by the judges on Wednesday concerning transgender rights is known as United States v. Skrmetti, indicating that it is a legal dispute initiated by the federal government.
The government’s control is set to shift next month, 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.
Typically, this would mean that the justices would have no further decisions to make, since both parties would agree that the law is constitutional.
In 2017, a similar situation occurred when President-elect Donald J. Trump first took office. In March of that year, the Trump administration changed its stance on the rights of transgender students, causing the Supreme Court to drop 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. Three families and a doctor initially challenged the Tennessee law, and the Biden administration also got involved on their behalf. Both the families and the government submitted separate requests for review in the Supreme Court, and the justices decided to only accept the one from the government.
Instead of throwing out the case entirely, the court may choose to approve the companion petition that was filed late. The court has the option to listen to a new argument or refer back to the one presented on Wednesday. During this presentation, Chase Strangio from the American Civil Liberties Union will be advocating for the families alongside Elizabeth B. Prelogar, who is representing the Biden administration as the U.S. solicitor general.
In the past, new administrations typically made few changes to their positions. For example, when the Obama administration took office, it did not reverse any positions. However, the first Trump administration was more daring. It reversed positions in four significant cases during its first full term in the Supreme Court, such as workers’ rights and voting rolls, and succeeded in all four cases.
The Biden administration was not hesitant to change its stance on issues previously supported by the Trump administration. In total, they rejected the approaches taken by the previous administration five times, resulting in losses 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 news related to the Supreme Court and also writes a column called Sidebar which discusses 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. For more information about Adam Liptak, you
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