Who could have thought that somewhere behind the US Supreme Court’s landmark judgment against President Donald Trump’s sweeping tariffs was a traditional Punjabi ‘kada’ lending strength to the Indian-Americal lawyer who was instrumental in turning the tide.“Presidents are powerful, but our Constitution is more powerful still,” Neal Katyal said after successfully taking on one of the most powerful men in the world in court.Katyal, who takes pride in calling himself the “son of immigirants”, argued against Trump’s use of the 1977 International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA) to impose what he described as “unjust, unconstitutional taxes” on imports from the country’s trading partners.Born to Indian immigrant parents — a paediatrician mother and an engineer father — in Chicago, Neal went on to study at Dartmouth College and Yale Law School.In November 2025, while tariff arguments were under way in Supreme Court, Katyal posted a picture of a ‘kada’ placed atop a legal brief representing the court case against Trump. He wrote, “Thinking of my father first and foremost, who came to this land of freedom… May the Constitution win.”The simple gesture speaks volumes of his sentiments for his roots and the strength that he draws from the ‘kada’, which is one of the five articles of Sikh faith.A former Acting Solicitor General former Acting Solicitor General of the United States under President Barack Obama, Katyal now serves as the Paul and Patricia Saunders Professor of National Security Law at Georgetown University Law Center. He is a partner in the Washington DC office of Milbank LLP and a member of the firm’s Litigation & Arbitration Group.
