Neal Katyal, an Indian-origin lawyer, played a pivotal role in the recent US Supreme Court decision that overturned PresidentDonald Trump's global tariffs. As a former Acting Solicitor General, he represented small businesses in the case and emphasised on the importance of the Constitution in curbing presidential power. After the Supreme Court verdict came in on Friday, Katyal took to social media platform X and wrote, "Victory." The 6-3 ruling has invalidated Trump's global tariffs and emphasised that only Congress has the constitutional authority to impose taxes, including tariffs.
In an interview with MS Now after the ruling, Neal Katyal said, "One of the great things about the American system is what just happened today. I was able to go to court - the son of immigrants - able to go to court and say on behalf of American small businesses, 'Hey, this President is acting illegally.'"
"I was able to present my case, have them ask really hard questions at me, it was a really intense oral argument and at the end of it, they voted and we won," he said.
"That is something so extraordinary about this country. The idea that we have a system that self-corrects, that allows us to say 'You might be the most powerful man in the world but you still can't break the Constitution. That to me is what today is about," he added.
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Born in 1970 in Chicago to a paediatrician mother and an engineer father, both of whom immigrated from India, Neal Katyal is a partner in the Washington DC office of Milbank LLP and a member of the firm's Litigation & Arbitration Group. A graduate of Yale Law School, Katyal clerked for Guido Calabresi of the US Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit as well as for Justice Stephen G. Breyer of the US Supreme Court.
He served in the Deputy Attorney General's Office at the Justice Department as National Security Advisor and as Special Assistant to the Deputy Attorney General during 1998-1999. The Chief Justice of the United States appointed him in 2011 and 2014 to the Advisory Committee on Federal Appellate Rules.
He is also the recipient of the "highest award given to a civilian" by the US Department of Justice, the Edmund Randolph Award, which was presented to him by the Attorney General in 2011, his profile said.
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In a statement following the verdict, he said the US Supreme Court stood up for the rule of law and Americans everywhere. Katyal expressed gratitude for the leadership of the Liberty Justice Centre, which "led the fight when others wouldn't".
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