President Trump’s Justice Department on Friday abandoned the Biden administration’s Supreme Court challenge to gender-affirming care bans for minors, but the new administration urged the justices to still resolve the issue this term.
The Supreme Court has not yet issued a decision after hearing arguments late last year in the challenge against Tennessee’s ban, SB1. The Biden administration claimed the legislation amounts to unconstitutional sex discrimination.
“The Department has now determined that SB1 does not deny equal protection on account of sex or any other characteristic. Accordingly, the new Administration would not have intervened to challenge SB1 — let alone sought this Court’s review of the court of appeals’ decision,” Deputy Solicitor General Curtis Gannon wrote in a Friday letter.
The Trump administration had been widely expected to reverse positions, as is normal in hot-button cases when a new party takes the presidency. But Gannon’s letter was notable in that it nevertheless urges the Supreme Court to issue its decision in the case, despite the administration now switching sides.
At oral arguments, the high court’s conservative majority appeared to lean toward upholding the bans, which would align with the new Justice Department position.
“The United States believes that the confluence of several factors counsels against seeking to dismiss its case in this Court. The Court’s prompt resolution of the question presented will bear on many cases pending in the lower courts,” Gannon wrote.
As the Supreme Court mulls its current case, it has held other pending petitions that implicate gender-affirming care bans, which have now been passed by roughly two dozen Republican-led states. The justices have also stalled other cases implicating transgender protections, such as whether states can ban transgender girls from competing on girls’ school sports teams.
Gannon said the high court could still move ahead in its current case despite the Justice Department’s reversal, since the justices had also heard arguments from a group of transgender adolescents and parents who are steadfast in challenging Tennessee’s ban.
Their legal team, which comprises the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), the ACLU of Tennessee, Lambda Legal and Akin Gump, criticized the development.
“Tennessee’s discriminatory and baseless ban continues to upend the lives of our plaintiffs–transgender adolescents, their families, and a medical provider,” the groups said in a joint statement.
“These Tennesseans have had their Constitutional right to equal protection under the law violated by the state of Tennessee. This latest move from the Trump administration is another indication that they are using the power of the federal government to target marginalized groups for further discrimination. We condemn this latest move and will continue to fight to vindicate the constitutional rights of all LGBTQ people,” the statement continued.
Upon taking office, Trump’s Justice Department asked the court to freeze several cases that were not yet been fully briefed, so the new administration could first consider actions that could moot the disputes.
The Supreme Court in a series of brief orders Thursday denied most of those requests, only agreeing to hold only one pending case, which is related to a Biden-era rule implicating student debt relief.
Friday’s letter is the Justice Department’s first reversal in a Supreme Court case that has already been argued.
—Updated at 2:48 p.m. Eastern
