Who is Neal Katyal? All about the Indian-origin lawyer who led legal challenge against Trump tariffs at SCOTUS

Neal Katyal, the son of Indian immigrants, who once served as a top advocate of America's top courtroom, has emerged as the face of the landmark Supreme Court judgement that struck down US President Donald Trump's sweeping global tariffs. The SCOTUS's Friday (Feb 20) decision represented a major blow to Trump in his second term. It stripped away a powerful tool he had aggressively utilised to reshape American trade pacts, collect substantial sums from US companies importing foreign goods, and intervene in the domestic matters of countries whose leaders did not comply with his directives. Who is Neal Katyal? All you need to know.

Son of immigrants able to say ‘president is acting illegally’

Katyal, a former Acting Solicitor General of the United States, argued against Trump's use of the 1977 International Emergency Economic Powers Act to impose what he described as "unjust, unconstitutional taxes".

"The US Supreme Court gave us everything we asked for in our legal case. Everything," said Katyal after the ruling. "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," he added.

“I was able to go to court -- the son of immigrants -- 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, and at the end of it, they voted and we won. That is something extraordinary about this country,” Neal Katyal told MS Now.

The administration had framed the tariffs as necessary to address trade deficits and the fentanyl crisis, calling them matters of national emergency. Katyal countered that the move amounted to unlawful taxation without congressional approval. "Presidents are powerful, but our Constitution is more powerful still," Katyal said after the ruling. "In America, only Congress can impose taxes on the American people."

Who is Neal Katyal?

Born in Chicago to Indian immigrant parents, a doctor and an engineer, Katyal has spent much of his career at the centre of major constitutional disputes. He graduated from Dartmouth College and Yale Law School and clerked for Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer.

In 2010, President Barack Obama appointed him Acting Solicitor General, making him the federal government’s top courtroom advocate. Over the years, Katyal has argued more than 50 cases before the Supreme Court, earning recognition as one of the most prominent appellate lawyers in the country.

He is currently a partner at Milbank LLP and a professor at Georgetown University Law Center. His past work includes defending the Voting Rights Act, challenging Trump’s 2017 travel ban, and serving as a special prosecutor in Minnesota in the George Floyd case.