Who is Neal Katyal? Indian-origin lawyer behind SC verdict against Trump's tariffs

An Indian-American advocate has become the face of the landmark Supreme Court judgment that limited U.S. President Donald Trump's global tariffs. Attorney Neal Katyal, after arguing against the tariffs, came out victorious with a verdict that ruled that the President had exceeded his legal authority by imposing wide-ranging levies without clear approval from the congress.

Katyal, a former acting Solicitor General of the United States, had argued that Trump's use of the 1977 International Emergency Powers Act (IEEPA) to impose tariffs on all of the US’s trading partners was unconstitutional.

The landmark 6-3 decision on Friday by the SC was authored by Conservative Chief Justice John Roberts, joined by Neil Gorsuch and Amy Coney Barrett and three liberal justices Sonia Sotomayor, Elena Kagan and Ketanji Brown Jackson, Reuters reported.  

After the ruling, he spoke to reporters outside the US Supreme Court in Washington saying that the ruling is a complete and total victory for the challengers, as reported by AP.

“It’s a reaffirmation of our deepest constitutional values and the idea that Congress, not any one man, controls the power to tax the American people,”  he said.

The case was brought by a group of small businessmen and supported by the Liberty Justice Centre.

Trump had argued that the tariffs were necessary for national security and economic pressure, citing trade deficits and fentanyl overdoses as national emergencies. The administration was represented by Solicitor General D. John Sauer.

Katyal, however, argued the case was never about politics “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 said that the verdict reaffirmed the SC’s duty and called it the  “bedrock of our government for 250 years.”

“Today, the US 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. 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 said

“I’m grateful for the leadership of the Liberty Justice Centre, and in particular for the brilliant advocacy by its chair, Sara Albrecht, who led the fight when others wouldn’t and was dauntless in its defence of our constitutional order,” he added.

Neal Kumar Katyal, 55, is a prominent American lawyer and legal scholar. He is currently a partner at Milbank LLP and The the Paul and Patricia Saunders Professor of National Security Law at Georgetown University Law Centre.

He was born in Chicago to Indian immigrant parents. His father was an engineer, and his mother a doctor.

He studied at Dartmouth College and Yale Law School. In 2010, he was appointed Acting Solicitor General under President Barack Obama, becoming the lawyer who represented the US government before the Supreme Court. And the court of appeals. He has argued more than 50 cases before the SC, setting records for minority advocates.

Katyal has received the US Justice Department's highest Civilian honour, the Edmund Randolph award. He was named Litigator of the Year by The American Lawyer in both 2017 and 2023. Forbes listed him among the top 200 lawyers in the United States in 2024 and 2025.

His previous cases include defending the constitutionality of the Voting Rights Act of 1965, challenging Trump’s 2017 travel ban, and securing unanimous rulings in major environmental and national security disputes

He was also the special prosecutor for the state of Minnesota in the murder case of George Floyd.