Noah Feldman, Columnist

Two Cases Where Trump Could Rewrite the Rules

Reversal of Obama's executive actions may make the Supreme Court's view moot.

November 10, 2016 at 7:07 PM UTC

Corrected

November 12, 2016 at 3:44 PM UTC

Noah Feldman is a Bloomberg Opinion columnist. A professor of law at Harvard University, he is author, most recently, of “To Be a Jew Today: A New Guide to God, Israel, and the Jewish People."

Mandated. For now.
Photographer: Tim Matsui/Getty Images

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Vice President-elect Mike Pence has told evangelical leader James Dobson that the next administration will reverse President Barack Obama’s contraceptive mandate rules and transgender bathroom guidance -- both of which it can do without Congress. If Pence speaks for President-elect Donald Trump, both decisions would have major implications for cases now before the U.S. Supreme Court.

In both cases, the effects of unilateral executive action are tricky, because liberal appellate decisions remain on the books, and because conservatives would like to see those decisions reversed. Trump doesn’t yet have an attorney general or a solicitor general, but his Department of Justice will soon have to figure out how to proceed.