Neal Katyal
The Strategist
The long view, patient, analytical, playing several moves ahead.
Neal Katyal epitomizes The Strategist through his obsessive, multi-move sequencing of oral argument. The former Solicitor General does not merely answer questions, he engineers the questions he wants asked, treating courtroom dialogue as chess and mapping justices' interpretive identities in advance to steer outcomes, a practice he frames as the dark arts. Even his policy warnings show the same foresight, extrapolating precedent into future administrations to collapse a ruling's logic before it hardens.
“Justice Thomas is going to ask the first question. Doesn't matter what the question is. I'm then going to say... 'I've been waiting for this case because it speaks to your method of constitutional interpretation.'”
“Can I answer the question in a way that leads them to ask the next question, which is one I do want. That's the most dark arts part of it.”
“If this president does it for tariffs, another president could say climate's a real emergency and impose one thousand percent tariffs on any goods from an oil producing country.”
Masters in Business: “Special Edition: Neal Katyal on Challenging Trump's Global Tariffs”
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