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If the Trump Administration changes its position on the case, it could impact the outcome of the case before the Supreme Court because the federal government initially brought the challenge.
Written by Adam Liptak
Writing from the capital
The case being considered by the justices on Wednesday involves transgender rights and is titled United States v. Skrmetti, indicating that it is a legal dispute initiated by the federal government.
The government will be under new leadership next month, 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 took office. In March of that year, the Supreme Court decided to dismiss a case they were planning to review regarding the rights of transgender students. This 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. 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 only the government’s petition was accepted by the justices.
Instead of immediately 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 different argument, or they could refer back to the one presented on Wednesday, where a lawyer from the American Civil Liberties Union, Chase Strangio, will argue with Elizabeth B. Prelogar, the U.S. solicitor general, who is representing the Biden administration.
In the past, new administrations typically made few changes to their positions. The Obama administration, for example, did not alter 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 initial Supreme Court term, such as on workers’ rights and voting rolls, and was successful in all four instances.
The Biden administration did not hesitate to change their stance on certain issues. 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 is a journalist who specializes in covering news related to the Supreme Court and also writes a column called Sidebar about 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. Learn more about Adam Liptak.
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