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If the Trump Administration changes its stance, it could impact the outcome of the case before the Supreme Court since the federal government initially initiated the challenge.
Written by Adam Liptak
Reporting live from the
The case concerning transgender rights that the justices are reviewing on Wednesday is known as United States v. Skrmetti, indicating that it is a legal dispute initiated by the federal government.
The government will be under new leadership next month, and it is likely that the Trump administration will not support the Biden administration’s stance that a Tennessee law preventing 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 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 Trump administration changed its stance on transgender students’ rights, which resulted in the Supreme Court dropping a case concerning a transgender boy in 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 them in support. 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 rejecting the case, the court has the option to approve the companion petition at a later time. The court may choose to listen to a different argument or refer to the one presented on Wednesday by Chase Strangio of the ACLU and Elizabeth B. Prelogar, the U.S. solicitor general, who is representing the Biden administration.
In the past, new administrations would usually stick to the positions of the previous administration. However, the Obama administration did not change any positions when they took office. The first Trump administration, on the other hand, was more bold and changed positions in four major cases during its first full term in the Supreme Court. These cases involved workers’ rights and voting rolls, and the administration was successful in all four instances.
The Biden administration was not hesitant to change its stance on certain issues. They rejected the methods used by the Trump administration five times, but ultimately lost in four of those instances, as reported by Thomas Wolf from the Brennan Center for Justice.
Adam Liptak is a journalist who reports on the Supreme Court and writes 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. Learn more about Adam Liptak.
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