Veteran Supreme Court lawyer Neil Katyal said he knew he could win President Donald Trump’s wide-ranging tariff case, calling his actions “grossly illegal.”
Leaders react to Supreme Court ruling on President Trump’s tariffs
Leaders reacted to the Supreme Court’s decision to invalidate President Donald Trump’s tariffs in a landmark ruling.
WASHINGTON – The lawyer who won a sweeping new Supreme Court decision blocking President Donald Trump’s tariff lawsuit acknowledged on Tuesday that a challenge to presidential authority was highly likely, but said he always believed the court would ultimately side with the president. “This was a complete victory,” Neil Katyal told USA TODAY shortly after the verdict. “We got everything we wanted. I thought the Supreme Court upheld our Constitution.”
“We have always believed that this is a serious violation,” Katyal added. “And we were very pleased that six members of the Supreme Court agreed with us.” The decision marks a rare and consequential rebuke of presidential power in the area of trade, where courts have historically given broad discretion to the executive branch, said Katyal, a Georgetown University law professor and former acting attorney general in the Obama administration.
That backlash, including support from two conservative judges appointed by President Trump, made the victory particularly significant.
“Courts are very cautious about saying no to a president when challenging significant actions by the president,” he says. “It’s always a tough hill.”
In dozens of previous cases, the Supreme Court has mostly handed President Trump short-term victories over executive powers in cases brought as part of the high court’s emergency proceedings, allowing his policies to temporarily take effect until lower courts rule.
However, tariff cases are routine cases before the Supreme Court, and the Supreme Court has ordered full arguments and expedited arguments.
So this was the first time the justices had a real chance to say yes or no to Trump, who has been actively lobbying the courts to side with him in recent months, Katyal said.
President Trump reacts to SCOTUS tariff decision to lower tariffs
After expressing disappointment with the SCOTUS tariff decision, President Donald Trump announced that he had signed an order imposing 10% tariffs worldwide.
Still, Katyal said he never doubted the legal basis for the challenge. “I always knew in my heart that this was blatantly illegal,” he said, adding that his team believed this was “the best originalist understanding from the founder’s perspective.” He also sharply criticized the underlying policies, calling President Trump’s actions “truly and fundamentally un-American.” This victory carries particular weight given Katyal’s extensive Supreme Court experience. He said the case was his 53rd argument before the high court, part of a career that now stands at 54. But the arguments stood out even to veteran SCOTUS warriors as the definitive message the justices sent about the limits of presidential power. “We felt this decision was incredibly important at this time in order to uphold the rule of law and the separation of powers,” Katiyar said.
