US tariffs: The Supreme Court of the United States on Friday struck down most of US President Donald Trump’s tariffs, ruling that he lacked authority under a 1977 emergency law to impose broad import levies on America’s trading partners across the world. After the ruling, Neal Katyal’s name has emerged as the face of the landmark judgment.
Who is Neal Katyal?
Neal Katyal, according to IANS, is a former Acting Solicitor General of the US. Notably, he argued against Trump’s use of the 1977 International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA) to impose what he described as “unjust, unconstitutional taxes” on imports from nearly every trading partner.
Katyal was born in Chicago to Indian immigrant parents, a doctor and an engineer. He is a graduate of Dartmouth College and Yale Law School. He clerked for Justice Stephen Breyer of the US Supreme Court.
Appointed Acting Solicitor General by former US President Barack Obama in 2010, Katyal represented the federal government before the apex court and the Courts of Appeals nationwide.
IANS reported that Katyal is currently a partner at Milbank LLP and the Paul Saunders Professor at Georgetown University Law Center. Furthermore, he specialises in constitutional and complex appellate litigation.
Moreover, he has built a career around high-stakes constitutional battles. He has argued more than 50 cases before the Supreme Court, breaking records for minority advocates.
His past cases include defending the constitutionality of the Voting Rights Act of 1965, challenging Trump’s 2017 travel ban, and winning unanimous rulings in major environmental and national security disputes.
Katyal has also served as Special Prosecutor for the State of Minnesota in the murder case of George Floyd and is the author of the book Impeach: The Case Against Donald Trump.
He has received the US Justice Department’s highest civilian honour, the Edmund Randolph Award, and has been named Litigator of the Year by The American Lawyer in 2017 and 2023.
What Neal Katyal said after SC’s ruling?
The case was reportedly brought by small businesses and supported by the Liberty Justice Center. On the other hand, US President Trump had defended the tariffs as vital to national security and economic leverage, citing trade deficits and fentanyl overdoses as national emergencies.
After the ruling, Katyal said, “Today, the United States Supreme Court stood up for the rule of law and Americans everywhere. Its message was simple: Presidents are powerful, but our Constitution is more powerful still. In America, only Congress can impose taxes on the American people.”
“The US Supreme Court gave us everything we asked for in our legal case. Everything,” he said.
“This case has always been about the presidency, not any one president. It has always been about the separation of powers, and not the politics of the moment. I’m gratified to see our Supreme Court, which has been the bedrock of our government for 250 years, protect our most fundamental values,” he further added.
“Just think about it like that. The son of immigrants was able to go to court and say on behalf of American small businesses, hey, this president is acting illegally. And 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,” according to IANS, he told MS Now in an interview.
“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. I mean, that to me is what today is about,” he elaborated.
Katyal framed the Supreme Court’s ruling on tariffs as a constitutional milestone.
(with IANS inputs)
