Neal Katyal
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Neal Kumar Katyal is the John Carroll Professor of Law at Georgetown University Law School and was the lead counsel in the Supreme Court case Hamdan v. Rumsfeld, which held that military commissions set up by the Bush administration to try detainees at Guantanamo Bay "violate both the UCMJ and the four Geneva Conventions."
Katyal was born in America to immigrant parents. His mother was a pediatrician and his father was an engineer. He was born in a Hindu household, but studied in a Catholic school. He attended Dartmouth College and Yale Law School. At Yale, Katyal studied under professor Akhil Amar, with whom he published articles in law review and political opinion journals in 1995 and 1996. After graduating, Katyal clerked for Judge Guido Calabresi of the U.S. Court of Appeals, and then Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer.
Katyal 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 Bush v. Gore of 2000, and represented the deans of most major private law schools in the University of Michigan affirmative-action case that the Supreme Court decided last year.
While working on Hamdan v. Rumsfeld, he accumulated nearly US$40,000 of personal debt for travel and other expenses.
He appeared on "The Colbert Report" on July 26, 2006.
[edit] References
- NPR, Nina Totenberg's summary of Katyals's efforts, on 2006, September 5. 'Hamdan v. Rumsfeld': Path to a Landmark Ruling. [1]
- Georgetown University Law Center faculty profile, containing a link to his publications, awards and cases argued [2].
- Website maintained by Hamdan's defense team, including counsel profiles and briefs [3].
