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The outcome of the case before the Supreme Court may be influenced by a change in administration since it was the federal government that initiated the challenge.
Written by Adam Liptak
Writing from the nation
The case regarding trans rights that the justices are considering on Wednesday is known as United States v. Skrmetti, indicating that it is a legal dispute initiated by the federal government.
However, the government’s leadership is set to shift next month, and it is highly likely that the Trump administration will reject the Biden administration’s position 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 justices to make, since both parties would agree that the law was constitutional.
In 2017, a similar situation occurred when President-elect Donald J. Trump took office. In March of that year, the Supreme Court decided to dismiss a case involving the rights of transgender students after the Trump administration changed its stance. The case was about 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 supporting their side. Both the families and the government submitted separate requests for the Supreme Court to review the case, and the justices decided to only accept the government’s petition.
Instead of throwing out the case, the court may decide to approve the companion petition at a later time. The court could listen to a new argument or use 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 rarely changed their positions. Unlike the Obama administration, which did not change any positions when it took office, the first Trump administration made significant changes. Within its first full Supreme Court term, it changed positions in four major cases, including those concerning workers’ rights and voting rolls, and it was successful in all four cases.
The Biden administration was not hesitant to change its stance on issues, and it publicly rejected the strategies of the previous Trump administration on five occasions. However, they 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 legal news in his column called Sidebar. 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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