WASHINGTON (OSV News) -- The Trump administration Feb. 7 changed the government's position in a Supreme Court case concerning a Tennessee state law banning certain types of medical or surgical gender reassignment procedures for minors who identify as transgender.

However, the administration also urged the Supreme Court to continue to review the Biden administration's dispute, which was joined by LGBTQ+ advocacy groups.

The question at issue in the still-pending case before the Supreme Court is whether Tennessee's law, Senate Bill 1, violates the equal protection clause of the 14th Amendment that "no state can deny equal protection under the law to any person within its jurisdiction."

The Biden administration, joined by groups including the American Civil Liberties Union, argued that the law did violate the 14th Amendment, but Deputy Solicitor General Curtis Gannon wrote in a Feb. 7 letter to the court on behalf of the Trump administration, "the government's previously stated views no longer represent the United States' position."

However, the letter also argued that the court should continue its review.

"The Court's prompt resolution of the question presented will bear on many cases pending in the lower courts," Gannon wrote.

The change in position was expected, and having two separate parties -- the federal government and the ACLU -- argue in the case in December means the challenge could continue through the ACLU and the other groups involved.

A joint Feb. 7 statement from Lambda Legal, the ACLU, the ACLU of Tennessee, and the Akin Gump law firm argued "Tennessee's discriminatory and baseless ban continues to upend the lives of our plaintiffs–transgender adolescents, their families, and a medical provider."

"These Tennesseans have had their Constitutional right to equal protection under the law violated by the state of Tennessee," the statement said. "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."

A ruling by the high court -- in the event it continues its review -- is expected by the end of its current term, which typically ends in June.

At least 25 Republican-led states have adopted laws restricting or banning gender reassignment surgery or related hormonal treatments for minors, although not all of those bans are currently in effect amid legal challenges, according to data from the Movement Advancement Project, an LGBTQ+ policy group. A ruling in United States v. Skrmetti could potentially have a significant impact on the future of those laws.

Supporters of prohibitions on gender transition surgeries or hormonal treatments for minors who identify as transgender say such restrictions will prevent them from making irreversible decisions as children that they may later come to regret as adults. Critics of such bans argue that preventing those interventions could cause other harm to minors, such as mental health issues or physical self-harm.

In guidance on health care policy and practices released in March 2023, the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops' Committee on Doctrine said the church opposes interventions that "involve the use of surgical or chemical techniques that aim to exchange the sex characteristics of a patient's body for those of the opposite sex or for simulations thereof."

"Any technological intervention that does not accord with the fundamental order of the human person as a unity of body and soul, including the sexual difference inscribed in the body, ultimately does not help but, rather, harms the human person," the document states.

A 2022 study by the UCLA Williams Institute found that there are approximately 1.6 million people in the U.S. who identify as transgender, and about half of that population is between the ages of 13 and 24.

- - - Kate Scanlon is a national reporter for OSV News covering Washington. Follow her on X @kgscanlon.