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What will occur with the case if the Trump Administration changes its position? The outcome of the case before the Supreme Court may be impacted by the change in administration, as the federal government initiated the challenge.
Written by Adam Liptak
Writing from the nation
The case being reviewed by the judges on Wednesday involves trans rights and is referred to as United States v. Skrmetti, indicating that it is a lawsuit initiated by the federal government.
Next month, there will be a change in government control, 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 indicate that there would be no further decisions for the judges to make, since both parties would agree that the law is constitutional.
In 2017, a similar situation occurred when President-elect Donald J. Trump took office. In March of that year, the Supreme Court decided not to proceed with a case involving the rights of transgender students after the Trump administration changed its stance. The case in question was about 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, with the Biden administration joining in their support. Both the families and the government submitted separate requests for the Supreme Court to review the case, and the justices only accepted the government’s petition.
Instead of immediately throwing out the case, the court has the option to approve the companion petition at a later time. The court may choose to listen to a new argument or stick with the one presented on Wednesday by Chase Strangio from the American Civil Liberties Union and Elizabeth B. Prelogar, the U.S. solicitor general representing the Biden administration.
In the past, new administrations typically made few changes to existing positions. The Obama administration, for example, did not switch positions at all when they took office. However, the first Trump administration was more daring in this regard. They altered positions in four significant cases during their first full Supreme Court term, which included issues related to workers’ rights and voting rolls, and they were successful in all four cases.
The Biden administration did not hesitate to change its stance on various issues. It rejected the approaches taken by the Trump administration on five occasions, but only won one of those cases, as reported by Thomas Wolf from the Brennan Center for Justice.
Adam Liptak is a journalist who specializes in covering the news related to the Supreme Court and writes a column called Sidebar that focuses on legal changes and updates. He went to Yale Law School and worked as a lawyer for 14 years before starting at The New York Times in 2002.
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