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If the Trump Administration changes its position on the case, it could impact the outcome of the Supreme Court proceedings since the government is the one who initiated the challenge.
Authored by Adam Liptak
Updating from the capital
The case being heard by the justices on Wednesday regarding trans rights is known as United States v. Skrmetti, indicating that it is a legal dispute initiated by the federal government.
The government’s leadership will shift next month, and it is highly likely that the Trump administration will reject the Biden administration’s belief that a Tennessee law restricting certain medical treatments for transgender minors goes against the Constitution.
Typically, this would indicate that the judges would not need to make a decision, as both parties would agree that the law is constitutional.
In 2017, a similar situation occurred when President-elect Donald J. Trump took office. In March of that year, the Trump administration changed its stance on transgender student rights, causing the Supreme Court to drop a case involving 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 were the initial challengers of the Tennessee law, with the Biden administration joining their side. Both the families and the government submitted petitions to the Supreme Court for review, but only the government’s petition was accepted by the justices.
Instead of throwing out the case, the court has the option to approve the companion petition at a later time. The court may choose to listen to a new argument or stick with the one presented on Wednesday by Chase Strangio from the ACLU and Elizabeth B. Prelogar, the U.S. solicitor general representing the Biden administration.
In the past, new administrations typically kept their positions consistent. For example, when Obama took office, there were no changes in positions. However, the first Trump administration was more daring, altering positions in four key cases during its first full Supreme Court term. These changes included issues relating to workers’ rights and voting rolls, and the administration succeeded in all four cases.
The Biden administration was not hesitant to change its stance on certain issues. It openly rejected the strategies of the previous Trump administration in five instances, but ended up losing in four of those situations, as reported by Thomas Wolf from the Brennan Center for Justice.
Adam Liptak is a journalist who focuses on reporting about the Supreme Court and legal news in his column, Sidebar. He studied at 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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