Who is Neal Katyal, the Indian-origin man who waged a war against Trump tariffs in US SC

As the Supreme Court of the United States struck down President Donald Trump’s far-reaching global tariffs on Friday, delivering a major setback to his economic agenda, Neal Katyal has emerged as a central figure behind the landmark ruling that overturned the sweeping duties.

The son of Indian immigrants and the former Acting Solicitor General of the United States under President Barack Obama, Katyal argued the consequential tariff case on behalf of small businesses and won.

“Victory,” Katyal posted on X shortly after the Supreme Court verdict came in on Friday.


Katyal, who serves as the Paul and Patricia Saunders Professor of National Security Law at Georgetown University Law Center, described the ruling as a sweeping endorsement of the arguments advanced in the case challenging what plaintiffs called unconstitutional taxation by the executive branch.

In his statement on X, he wrote, "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."

All about Katyal

Katyal, a partner at the global law firm Milbank LLP, has argued dozens of cases before the nation's highest court and is widely regarded as one of the country's foremost constitutional advocates. His academic and litigation work has long focused on executive power, national security law, and the structural safeguards embedded in the Constitution.

The case, backed by the Liberty Justice Center and a group of small business owners, centered on whether the president could unilaterally impose taxes without congressional authorization. In siding with the challengers, the Court reaffirmed that taxing authority rests exclusively with Congress under Article I of the Constitution.

Katyal was born in 1970 in Chicago to a paediatrician mother and engineer father, both of whom immigrated from India.

According to his profile on the Milbank website, Katyal focuses on appellate and complex litigation and has argued 54 cases before the Supreme Court of the United States.

He has also served as a law professor for over two decades at Georgetown University Law Centre, “where he was one of the youngest professors to have received tenure and a chaired professorship in the university's history” and has served as a visiting professor at Harvard and Yale law schools.

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 also 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.

Katyal is 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.

The Chief Justice of the United States appointed him in 2011 and 2014 to the Advisory Committee on Federal Appellate Rules. Tariff drops to 10%

India now faces a lower tariff rate of 10 per cent, down from 18 per cent, after US President Donald Trump announced a new global levy on items imported into America in the wake of the Supreme Court verdict against his sweeping tariffs.

In a proclamation titled 'Imposing a Temporary Import Surcharge to Address Fundamental International Payments Problems', Trump said he is imposing, for a period of 150 days, a "temporary import surcharge of 10 per cent ad valorem" on articles imported into the United States, effective February 24.

Given this new tariff rate of 10 per cent, which will be applicable on countries around the world, Indian goods being imported into the US would no longer be subject to the 18 per cent tariff rate that had been decided on following the announcement of a framework for an Interim Agreement on trade between India and the US.

In a major setback to Trump's pivotal economic agenda in his second term, the US Supreme Court, in a 6-3 verdict written by Chief Justice John Roberts, ruled that the tariffs imposed by Trump on nations around the world were illegal and that the president had exceeded his authority when he imposed the sweeping levies.

Earlier this month, as the US and India announced they reached a framework for an Interim Agreement on trade, Trump issued an Executive Order removing the 25 per cent punitive tariffs imposed on India for its purchases of Russian oil, with the US president noting the commitment by New Delhi to stop directly or indirectly importing energy from Moscow and purchasing American energy products.

Under the trade deal, Washington would charge a reduced reciprocal tariff on New Delhi, lowering it from 25 per cent to 18 per cent.

Trump signed the proclamation "imposing a temporary import duty to address fundamental international payments problems and continue the Administration's work to rebalance our trade relationships to benefit American workers, farmers, and manufacturers".

A fact sheet issued by the White House said Trump is invoking his authority under Section 122 of the Trade Act of 1974, which "empowers the President to address certain fundamental international payment problems through surcharges and other special import restrictions".

The proclamation imposes, for a period of 150 days, a 10 per cent ad valorem import duty on articles imported into the United States. The temporary import duty will take effect February 24 at 12:01 am eastern standard time.

The fact sheet noted that some goods will not be subject to the temporary import duty because of the needs of the US economy or in order to ensure the duty more effectively addresses the fundamental international payments problems facing the United States.

The goods include certain critical minerals, metals used in currency and bullion, energy, and energy products; natural resources and fertilizers that cannot be grown, mined, or otherwise produced in the United States or grown, mined, or otherwise produced in sufficient quantities to meet domestic demand; certain agricultural products, including beef, tomatoes, and oranges; pharmaceuticals and pharmaceutical ingredients; certain electronics; passenger vehicles, certain light trucks, certain medium and heavy-duty vehicles, buses, and certain parts of passenger vehicles, light trucks, heavy-duty vehicles, and buses and certain aerospace products.