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What will occur with the case if the Trump Administration changes its stance? The outcome of the case before the Supreme Court may be impacted by the change in leadership of the federal government, as they are the ones who initiated the challenge.
Written by Adam Liptak
Providing updates from
The case being heard by the justices on Wednesday regarding trans rights is known as United States v. Skrmetti, indicating that it is a legal challenge initiated by the federal government.
The government’s control is set to change next month, and it is likely that the Trump administration will reject the Biden administration’s claim that a Tennessee law, which prohibits certain medical treatments for transgender minors, goes against the Constitution.
Typically, this would indicate that there would be no further need for the judges to make a decision, since both parties would then acknowledge that the law was in compliance with the constitution.
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 involving the rights of transgender students after the Trump administration changed its stance. The case in question was about a transgender boy in Virginia who wanted to use the boys’ bathroom at his high school.
However, there is a complication in this situation. The Tennessee law was challenged by three families and a doctor, with the Biden administration supporting their cause. Both the families and the government submitted requests for the Supreme Court to review the case, but the justices decided to only accept the government’s petition.
Instead of rejecting the case, the court has the option to approve the additional petition at a later time. The court may choose to listen to a new argument or use the one presented on Wednesday by Chase Strangio from the ACLU and Elizabeth B. Prelogar, the U.S. solicitor general, who will be representing the Biden administration.
In the past, new administrations typically made few changes to existing positions. However, the Obama administration did not change any positions when they took office. On the other hand, the first Trump administration made significant changes in four major cases during its first full Supreme Court term, such as workers’ rights and voting rolls, and was successful in all four cases.
The Biden administration was not hesitant to change previous stances, as evidenced by disavowing the policies of the Trump administration in five instances. However, they were unsuccessful in four of those cases, as reported by Thomas Wolf from the Brennan Center for Justice.
Adam Liptak reports on the activities of the Supreme Court and authors a column called Sidebar, which focuses on legal news. After graduating from Yale Law School, he worked as a lawyer for 14 years before starting at The New York Times in 2002. To learn more about Adam Liptak, click here.
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