Prom
If the Trump Administration changes its stance on the case, it could have an impact on its outcome before the Supreme Court, as the federal government initiated the challenge.
Written by Adam Liptak
Sending news updates from
The case being heard by the justices on Wednesday involves transgender rights and is known as United States v. Skrmetti, indicating that it was initiated by the federal government.
Next month, there will be a change in government control, and it is 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 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 dropped a case that involved the rights of transgender students after the Trump administration changed its stance. The case 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 were the ones who first challenged the Tennessee law, with the Biden administration later joining their side. Both the families and the government submitted their own requests for the Supreme Court to review the case, but the justices decided to only accept the government’s petition.
Instead of immediately 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 use the one presented on Wednesday by Chase Strangio from the American Civil Liberties Union and Elizabeth B. Prelogar from the U.S. solicitor general, who is representing the Biden administration.
In the past, new administrations typically made few changes to their positions. For example, the Obama administration did not change any positions when it took office. However, the first Trump administration was more daring. It changed positions in four significant cases during its first full term in the Supreme Court, such as workers’ rights and voting rolls, and succeeded in all four cases.
The Biden administration was not hesitant to change its stance on certain issues. It rejected the strategies used 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 news related to the Supreme Court and writes a column called Sidebar that focuses on legal updates. He attended Yale Law School and worked as a lawyer for 14 years before starting his career at The New York Times in 2002. You can learn more about Adam Liptak by
Prom
Index of the website
Navigation for site information