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If the Trump Administration changes its stance, it could impact the outcome of the case before the Supreme Court because the federal government initiated the challenge.
Written by Adam Liptak
Writing from the nation
The legal case involving transgender rights that the judges will be considering on Wednesday is known as United States v. Skrmetti. This case involves a challenge initiated by the federal government.
However, the government will transition to new leadership next month, and it is highly likely that the Trump administration will reject the Biden administration’s claim that a Tennessee law prohibiting certain medical treatments for transgender minors goes against the Constitution.
This typically indicates that there would be no further need for the justices to make a decision, 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 Trump administration changed its stance on transgender students’ rights, leading to the Supreme Court dropping 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 original challengers of 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 immediately rejecting the case, the court has the option to approve the companion petition at a later time. The court may decide to listen to additional arguments or they may refer back to the ones presented on Wednesday. During this time, a lawyer from the American Civil Liberties Union, Chase Strangio, will argue alongside Elizabeth B. Prelogar, the U.S. solicitor general, who is representing the Biden administration.
In the past, new administrations would rarely change their positions. For example, the Obama administration did not change any positions when it took office. On the other hand, the first Trump administration made more significant changes. It altered its stance in four major cases during its first full term in the Supreme Court, including issues related to workers’ rights and voting rolls. The administration succeeded in all four cases.
The Biden administration was unafraid to change its stance on issues previously supported by the Trump administration. In five instances, they went against the approaches taken by the previous administration, but only won in one of those cases, as reported by Thomas Wolf from the Brennan Center for Justice.
Adam Liptak is a journalist who reports on 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. To learn more about Adam Liptak, you can visit his
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