Neal K. Katyal
Paul and Patricia Saunders Professor of National Security Law
A.B., Dartmouth; J.D., Yale
Areas of Expertise:
Constitutional Law, Criminal Law and Procedure, National Security, Military, War and Peace
Neal Katyal, the Paul Saunders Professor at Georgetown University, focuses on Constitutional Law, Criminal Law, and Intellectual Property. He has served as Acting Solicitor General...
Continue Reading
Neal Katyal, the Paul Saunders Professor at Georgetown University, focuses on Constitutional Law, Criminal Law, and Intellectual Property. He has served as Acting Solicitor General of the United States, where he argued several major Supreme Court cases involving a variety of issues, such as his successful defense of the constitutionality of the Voting Rights Act of 1965, his victorious defense of former Attorney General John Ashcroft for alleged abuses in the war on terror, his unanimous victory against 8 states who sued the nation's leading power plants for contributing to global warming, and a variety of other matters. As Acting Solicitor General, Katyal was responsible for representing the federal government of the United States in all appellate matters before the U.S. Supreme Court and the Courts of Appeals throughout the nation. He served as Counsel of Record hundreds of times, and orally argued 15 U.S. Supreme Court cases, as well as numerous others in lower courts. He was also the only head of the Solicitor General's office to argue a case in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit, on the important question of whether certain aspects of the human genome were patentable.
While teaching at Georgetown, Katyal won Hamdan v. Rumsfeld in the United States Supreme Court, a case that challenged the policy of military trials at Guantanamo Bay Naval Station, Cuba. The Supreme Court sided with him by a 5-3 vote, finding that President Bush's tribunals violated the constitutional separation of powers, domestic military law, and international law. As former Solicitor General and Duke law professor Walter Dellinger put it "Hamdan is simply the most important decision on presidential power and the rule of law ever. Ever." An expert in matters of constitutional law, Katyal has embraced his theoretical work as the platform for practical consequences in the federal courts.
Katyal previously served as National Security Adviser in the U.S. Justice Department and was commissioned by President Clinton to write a report on the need for more legal pro bono work. He also served as Vice President Al Gore's co-counsel in the Supreme Court election dispute of 2000, and represented the Deans of most major private law schools in the landmark University of Michigan affirmative-action case Grutter v. Bollinger (2003). Katyal clerked for Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer as well as Judge Guido Calabresi of the U.S. Court of Appeals. He attended Dartmouth College and Yale Law School. His Articles have appeared in virtually every major law review and newspaper in America.
Katyal is the recipient of the very highest award given to a civilian by the U.S. Department of Justice, the Edmund Randolph Award, which the Attorney General presented to him in 2011. The Chief Justice of the United States appointed him in 2011 to the Advisory Committee on Federal Appellate Rules. Additionally, he was named as One of the 40 Most Influential Lawyers of the Last Decade Nationwide by National Law Journal (2010); One of the 90 Greatest Washington Lawyers Over the Last 30 Years by Legal Times (2008); Lawyer of the Year by Lawyers USA (2006); Runner-Up for Lawyer of the Year by National Law Journal (2006); One of the Top 50 Litigators Nationwide 45 Years Old or Younger by American Lawyer (2007); and one of the top 500 lawyers in the country by LawDragon Magazine for each of the last five years. He also won the National Law Journal's pro bono award in 2004.
Katyal has appeared on every major American nightly news program, as well as in other venues, such as the Colbert Report.
Recent Scholarship
Forthcoming Works and Works in Progress
- Neal Kumar Katyal, Dan M. Kahan & Tracey Louise Meares, Criminal Law and Its Administration (St. Paul, Minn.: Foundation Press forthcoming).
Contributions to Law Reviews and Other Scholarly Journals
- Neal Kumar Katyal, Stochastic Constraint, 126 Harv. L. Rev. 990-1010 (2013) (reviewing Jack Goldsmith, Power and Constraint: The Accountable Presidency After 9/11 (2012)). [L] [W] [WWW]
- Neal Kumar Katyal, Foreword: Academic Influence on the Court, 98 Va. L. Rev. 1189-1194 (2012). [HEIN] [L] [W] [SSRN] [Gtown Law]
- Neal Kumar Katyal, Remarks by Acting Solicitor General Neal Katyal, 99 Geo. L.J. 1317-1323 (2011). [HEIN] [L] [W] [WWW]
Book Chapters and Collected Works
- Neal Kumar Katyal, Equality in the War on Terror, in Civil Rights and Security 401-430 (David Dyzenhaus ed., Burlington, VT: Ashgate 2009).
All Scholarship 2000 - Present
Forthcoming Works and Works in Progress
- Neal Kumar Katyal, Dan M. Kahan & Tracey Louise Meares, Criminal Law and Its Administration (St. Paul, Minn.: Foundation Press forthcoming).
Contributions to Law Reviews and Other Scholarly Journals
- Neal Kumar Katyal, Stochastic Constraint, 126 Harv. L. Rev. 990-1010 (2013) (reviewing Jack Goldsmith, Power and Constraint: The Accountable Presidency After 9/11 (2012)). [L] [W] [WWW]
- Neal Kumar Katyal, Foreword: Academic Influence on the Court, 98 Va. L. Rev. 1189-1194 (2012). [HEIN] [L] [W] [SSRN] [Gtown Law]
- Neal Kumar Katyal, Remarks by Acting Solicitor General Neal Katyal, 99 Geo. L.J. 1317-1323 (2011). [HEIN] [L] [W] [WWW]
- Neal Kumar Katyal & Richard Caplan, The Surprisingly Stronger Case for the Legality of the NSA Surveillance Program: The FDR Precedent, 60 Stan. L. Rev. 1023-1078 (2008). [HEIN] [L] [W] [SSRN] [Gtown Law]
- Neal Kumar Katyal, Equality in the War on Terror, 59 Stan. L. Rev. 1365-1394 (2007). [HEIN] [L] [W] [SSRN] [Gtown Law]
- Neal Kumar Katyal & Derek Jinks, Disregarding Foreign Relations Law, 116 Yale L.J. 1230-1283 (2007). [HEIN] [L] [W] [SSRN]
- Neal Kumar Katyal, Giorgio Bongiovanni & Chiara Valentini, Terrorism, Emergency Powers, and the Role of the US Supreme Court: An Interview with Neal K. Katyal, 20 Ratio Juris 443-455 (2007). [SSRN] [WWW]
- Neal Kumar Katyal, Hamdan v. Rumseld: The Legal Academy Goes to Practice, 120 Harv. L. Rev. 65-123 (2006). [HEIN] [L] [W] [SSRN] [WWW]
- Neal Kumar Katyal, From the Court's Docket: Hamdan v. Rumsfeld, 115 Yale L.J. (The Pocket Part) 102-105 (2006). [L] [WWW]
- Neal Kumar Katyal, Internal Separation of Powers: Checking Today's Most Dangerous Branch from Within, 115 Yale L.J. 2314-2349 (2006). [HEIN] [L] [W] [SSRN]
- Neal Kumar Katyal, Toward Internal Separation of Powers, 116 Yale L.J. (The Pocket Part) 106-110 (2006). [L] [WWW]
- Neal Kumar Katyal, Community Self Help, 1 J.L. Econ. & Pol'y 33-67 (2005). [HEIN] [L] [W]
- Neal Kumar Katyal, Executive and Judicial Overreaction in the Guantánamo Cases, 2004 Cato Sup. Ct. Rev. 49-68. [W] [WWW]
- Neal Kumar Katyal, The Promise and Precondition of Educational Autonomy, 31 Hastings Const. L.Q. 557-572 (2003). [HEIN] [L] [W] [Gtown Law]
- Neal Kumar Katyal, Sunsetting Judicial Opinions, 79 Notre Dame L. Rev. 1237-1256 (2004). [HEIN] [L] [W]
- Neal Kumar Katyal, Tracey L. Meares & Dan M. Kahan, Updating the Study of Punishment, 56 Stan. L. Rev. 1171-1210 (2004). [HEIN] [L] [W]
- Neal Kumar Katyal, Conspiracy Theory, 112 Yale L.J. 1307-1398 (2003). [HEIN] [L] [W] [SSRN]
- Neal Kumar Katyal, Digital Architecture as Crime Control, 112 Yale L.J. 2261-2289 (2003). [HEIN] [L] [W] [SSRN]
- Neal Kumar Katyal, Architecture as Crime Control, 111 Yale L.J. 1039-1139 (2002). [HEIN] [L] [W] [SSRN]
- Neal Kumar Katyal & Laurence Tribe, Waging War, Deciding Guilt: Trying the Military Tribunals, 111 Yale L.J. 1259-1310 (2002). [HEIN] [L] [W] [SSRN]
- Neal Kumar Katyal, Criminal Law in Cyberspace, 149 U. Pa. L. Rev. 1003-1114 (2001). [HEIN] [L] [W] [SSRN]
- Neal Kumar Katyal, Legislative Constitutional Interpretation, 50 Duke L.J. 1335-1394 (2001). [HEIN] [L] [W]
- Neal Kumar Katyal, Impeachment as Congressional Constitutional Interpretation, 63 Law & Contemp. Probs. 169-191 (2000). [HEIN] [L] [W] [SSRN] [Gtown Law]
- Neal Kumar Katyal, The Public and Private Lives of Presidents, 8 Wm. & Mary Bill of Rts. J. 677-692 (2000). [HEIN] [L] [W] [Gtown Law]
Book Chapters and Collected Works
- Neal Kumar Katyal, Equality in the War on Terror, in Civil Rights and Security 401-430 (David Dyzenhaus ed., Burlington, VT: Ashgate 2009).
- Neal Kumar Katyal, The Dark Side of Private Ordering: The Network/Community Harm of Crime, in The Law and Economics of Cybersecurity 193-220 (Francesco Parisi & Mark Grady eds., New York: Cambridge University Press 2005). [BOOK]
U.S. Supreme Court Briefs
- Brief of Petitioner, Engquist v. Oregon Dept. of Agriculture, No. 07-474 (U.S. Feb. 20, 2008). [Gtown Law]
- Petition for Rehearing, Kennedy v. Louisiana, No. 07-343 (U.S. July 21, 2008). [W]
- Reply Brief for Petitioner, Engquist v. Oregon Department of Agriculture, No. 07-474 (U.S. April 9, 2008). [W] [Gtown Law]
- Brief of Salim Hamdan as Amicus Curiae, Boumediene v. Bush & Al Odah v. United States, Nos. 06-1195 & 06-1196 (U.S. Aug. 24, 2007). [W] [Gtown Law]
- Brief for Petitioner Salim Ahmed Hamdan, Hamdan v. Rumsfeld, No. 05-184 (U.S. Jan. 6, 2006). [W] [Gtown Law]
- Reply Brief for Petitioner, Hamdan v. Rumsfeld, No. 05-184 (U.S. Sept. 13, 2005). [W]
- Reply Brief for Petitioner, Hamdan v. Rumsfeld, No. 04-702 (U.S. Jan. 03, 2005). [W] [Gtown Law]
- Brief Amicus Curiae of Joseph R. Grodin as Amicus Curiae Supporting Neither Party (Vacatur), Elk Grove Unified School District v. Newdow, No. 02-1624 (U.S. Dec. 19, 2003). [W] [Gtown Law]
- Brief of Amici Curiae Judith Areen et al., Grutter v. Bollinger, No. 02-241 (U.S. Feb. 19, 2003). [W] [Gtown Law]
- Reply Brief of Respondents Al Gore, Jr., and Florida Democratic Party, George W. Bush v. Palm Beach County Canvassing Board, No. 00-836 (U.S. Nov. 30, 2000). [W] [Gtown Law]
- Supplemental Brief of Respondents Al Gore Jr. and Florida Democratic Party, Bush v. Palm Beach County Canvassing Bd., No. 00-836 (U.S. Nov. 30, 2000). [W] [Gtown Law]
Congressional Testimony
- Implementation of the U.S. Department of Justice’s Special Counsel Regulations: Hearing Before the Subcomm. on Commercial & Admin. Law of the H. Comm. on the Judiciary, 110th Cong., Feb. 26, 2008 (Statement of Neal Kumar Katyal) (CIS-No.: 2009-H521-74). [WWW]
- Implications of the Supreme Court’s Boumediene Decision for Detainees at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba: Hearing Before the H. Comm. on Armed Servs., 110th Cong., July 30, 2008 (Statement of Neal Kumar Katyal) (CIS No.: 2010-H201-51). [Gtown Law]
- Unlawful Enemy Combatants: Hearing Before the S. Comm. on Armed Servs., 110th Cong., Apr. 26, 2007 (Statement of Neal Kumar Katyal) (CIS-No.: 2008-S201-20). [Gtown Law]
- Military Commissions Act and the Continued Use of Guantánamo Bay as a Detention Facility: Hearing Before the H. Comm. on Armed Servs., 110th Cong., Mar. 29, 2007 (Statement of Neal Kumar Katyal) (CIS-No.: 2009-H201-10). [Gtown Law]
- Millitary Commissions: Hamdan v. Rumsfeld: Testimony Before the S. Comm. on Armed Servs., 109th Cong., July 19, 2006 (Statement of Neal Kumar Katyal) (CIS-No.: 2007-S201-9). [Gtown Law]
- Department of Justice Oversight: Preserving Our Freedoms While Defending Against Terrorism: Hearing Before the S. Comm. on the Judiciary, 107th Cong., Dec. 6, 2001 (Statement of Neal Kumar Katyal) (CIS-No.: 2003-S521-1). [Gtown Law]
Selected Contributions to Other Publications
- Neal Kumar Katyal, Counsel, Legal and Illegal, New Republic, Nov. 2007, at 37-41 (reviewing Jack L. Goldsmith, The Terror Presidency: Law and Judgement Inside the Bush Administration (2007)).
View all scholarship
-
Curriculum Vitae:
-
Email:
-
Address:
600 New Jersey Avenue N.W.
Washington, DC 20001 -
Office Location:
McDonough 5th Floor
-
Assistant:
Dianne McDonald
-
Phone:
202-662-9807
-
Loading...
