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If the Trump Administration changes its stance, it could impact the outcome of the case in front of the Supreme Court because the federal government initiated the challenge.
Authored by Adam Liptak
Writing from the nation
The case being heard by the judges on Wednesday regarding trans rights is named United States v. Skrmetti, indicating that it is a dispute initiated by the federal government.
However, the government’s control is set to change next month, 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 the justices would not have to make a decision, as both parties would agree that the law was constitutional.
In 2017, a similar situation occurred when President-elect Donald J. Trump was inaugurated. In March of that year, the Supreme Court decided to not move forward with a case involving the rights of transgender students. This was after the Trump administration changed their stance on the issue. The case involved a transgender boy from Virginia who was fighting 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, and the Biden administration joined in support of them. Both the families and the government submitted petitions for review to the Supreme Court, but the justices only accepted the government’s petition.
Instead of immediately closing the case, the court has the option to approve the companion petition at a later time. The court may choose to have another hearing to discuss the case, or it may base its decision on the arguments 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 did not change their positions often. 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 Supreme Court term, including cases involving workers’ rights and voting rolls, and it succeeded in all four cases.
The Biden administration did not hesitate to change its stance on various issues. They rejected the methods used by the Trump administration in five instances, but only succeeded 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 the Supreme Court and writing about legal news in his column, Sidebar. 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 additional information about Adam Liptak, you can find more details
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