WASHINGTON: When Neal Katyal walks up to the nine US Supreme Court justices on Wednesday morning, he will be arguing a case that even US President
Donald Trump has said is “one of the most important in the History of the Country.” So critical that Trump himself had said he would personally be in the court before deciding not to because “I do not want to distract from the importance of the decision.”
The 54-year old Indian-American attorney is the lead counsel for plaintiffs in the landmark case that will decide whether the U.S President has the authority to impose sweeping tariffs under the 1977 International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA), or whether, as Katyal will assert, the power of taxation and tariffs rests with Congress. “It will be, in my opinion, one of the most important and consequential Decisions ever made by the United States Supreme Court. If we win, we will be the Richest, Most Secure Country anywhere in the World, BY FAR. If we lose, our Country could be reduced to almost Third World status — Pray to God that that doesn’t happen!” Trump said on Sunday.
On his part, Katyal will pray before the court that it uphold the decision he won before the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit ,where he represented the Liberty Justice Center to secure a 7-4 ruling that said the President lacked the authority to impose sweeping tariffs. Indicative of the importance of the case, the arguments before the SC are scheduled to last for an extended period of 80 minutes, which is longer than the standard 60 minutes for cases. The courtroom is expected to be packed, with the eyes of not just Americans but the entire world glued to the proceedings.
Katyal is not new to the limelight. A celebrated attorney who has argued more than 50 cases before the Supreme Court, going back to 2000 when he was co-counsel for vice-president Al Gore in the Bush v Gore case, he is a familiar figure in American legal circles, and in the eyes of many, a “Trump tormentor.” From challenging the Trump administration's travel ban targeting several Muslim-majority countries during its first term to arguing against the White House's efforts to expedite deportation efforts, he has been a thorn in the administration’s side, lacing his record in courts with trenchant commentaries on MSNBC.
Son of a physician mom and engineer dad who emigrated from India, the Chicago-born Katyal attended Yale Law School, where he was mentored by Akhil Amar, an Indian-American US Constitutional Law legend. While Neal's sister Sonia Katyal is a Professor of Law and co-director of the Berkeley Center for Law & Technology at UC Berkeley, Akhil Amar's brother Vikram Amar was the Dean of University of Illinois College of Law and is currently a Distinguished Professor of Law at the University of California law school.
In fact, the tariff case against Trump also involves another Indian-American attorney, Pratik Shah, who is head of Akin Gump's Supreme Court and Appellate practice, and was the lead counsel Learning Resources and hand2mind, two educational toy companies that have also challenged the presidential authority under IEEPA. The Supreme Court consolidated all the cases for Wednesday’s hearing, and according to the SCOTUS blog, Katyal won the right to make the arguments after a coin toss.