'Tariffs are taxes': Meet Neal Katyal, Indian-American lawyer who defeated Donald Trump in US Supreme Court

Indian-American lawyer Neal Katyal.

Amid the hue and cry in India as to why the Prime Minister Narendra Modi-led BJP government struck a trade deal with the US ahead of the US Supreme Court's hearing on Donald Trump's sweeping global tariffs, an American lawyer of Indian descent came out victorious verdict that handed the US President his biggest legal setback, ever since he returned to the White House in 2025.

"In America, the chief justice said only Congress can impose taxes on the American people, and that's what tariffs are. Tariffs are taxes."

This was the statement given by Neal Katyal, a former Acting Solicitor General of the United States, who was the face behind the historic judgment of the US Supreme Court, which said Trump overstepped his legal authority by imposing broad without clear approval from Congress.

Katyal argued against Trump’s use of the 1977 International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA) to impose what he termed “unjust, unconstitutional taxes” on goods from nearly every trading partner.

Speaking to reporters outside of the US Supreme Court in Washington, DC Katyal called the ruling a "complete and total victory".

"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," said an exuberant Katyal after the Supreme Court ruling.

“Today, the U.S. 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," said Katyal.

"This case has always been about the presidency, not any one president...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,” said Katyal, who represented the case on behalf of a group of small businesses.

Indian connect

Born on 12 March, 1970, in Chicago to a physician mother, Pratibha, and an engineer father, Surendar, both from India, Katyal graduated from Dartmouth College and later Yale Law School, where he was a protégé of renowned constitutional scholar Akhil Amar. His sister, Sonia Katyal, is also a law professor at the University of California, Berkeley School of Law.

Career

Appointed Acting Solicitor General by President Barack Obama in 2010, Katyal represented the federal government before the Supreme Court and the Courts of Appeals nationwide. He has argued more than 50 cases before the Supreme Court, breaking records for minority advocates.

Katyal previously served as National Security Adviser in the US Justice Department and was commissioned by President Clinton to write a report on the need for more legal pro bono work.

During the Obama administration, Katyal successfully argued for the constitutionality of the Affordable Care Act, served as Special Prosecutor in the George Floyd murder case, and early in his career represented vice president Al Gore as co-counsel in Bush v Gore in 2000-2001. He is also the author of the book Impeach: The Case Against Donald Trump.

Currently, a partner at Milbank LLP and the Paul Saunders Professor at Georgetown University Law Center, Katyal specialises in constitutional and complex appellate litigation. 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.

His academic and litigation work focuses on executive power, national security law, and the structural safeguards embedded in the Constitution.

Accolades

Katyal 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. Forbes listed him among the top 200 lawyers in the United States in 2024 and 2025.