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If the Trump Administration changes its stance, it could impact the outcome of the case that was initially brought by the federal government and is currently pending before the Supreme Court.
Written by Adam Liptak
Providing updates from
The case being discussed in front of the judges on Wednesday involves trans rights and is known as United States v. Skrmetti. This means that the challenge has been brought forward by the federal government.
However, the government will shift in control 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 indicate that there would be no further decisions for the judges to make, since both parties would then agree that the law is constitutional.
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 regarding the rights of transgender students after the Trump administration changed its stance. The case involved a transgender boy in Virginia who was fighting for the right 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 stepping in to support them. Both the families and the government submitted 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 stick with the one presented on Wednesday, where Chase Strangio from the ACLU and Elizabeth B. Prelogar, the U.S. solicitor general representing the Biden administration, will be presenting their case for the families.
In the past, new administrations would rarely change their positions on issues. The Obama administration, for example, did not change any positions when they took office. However, the first Trump administration was much more bold and changed positions on four major cases during its first full Supreme Court term. These cases included issues related to workers’ rights and voting rolls, and the administration was successful in all four cases.
The Biden administration did not hesitate to change its stance on certain policies. They rejected the methods used by the Trump administration in five instances, but were unsuccessful in four of those cases, as reported by Thomas Wolf from the Brennan Center for Justice.
Adam Liptak writes about the Supreme Court and writes a column called Sidebar, which discusses legal updates. He graduated from Yale Law School and 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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