Neal Katyal Quotes
There are not many countries where a non-citizen with a fourth—grade education can sue the President. That is our great gift to the world. We’re strong enough to say our system can handle it.
Katyl had represented Salim Ahmed Hamdan, a Yemeni suspected Islamic terrorist being held at Guantanamo who sued the Government over his detention without trial or due process and the Bush Administration’s Military Commissions. In Hamdan v. Rumsfeld, the Supreme Court ruled that the Government was violating Hamdan’s rights.
Neal Katyal, Law Professor, Quoted in New York Times Magazine, July 9, 2006
Sourced by: Eigen's Political and Historical Quotations
This principle has been in force since the beginning of our republic. However, there was a suggested challenge to it by President Richard M. Nixon, and a substantial challenge by the George W. Bush Administration which took the position that as long as the President was engaged in carrying out a Constitutionally mandated function, like war or foreign policy, the President did not have to obey the existing laws and could direct his subordinates to violate the law. Bush lost in those areas which came to the courts and the Supreme Court made it clear that even the President, carry out his official duties, had no immunity from the laws of the nation.
He was trying to calm many Americans who were upset that a young Black man who was accused of a minor misdemeanor of selling loose cigarettes (not whole packs) was being arrested by 5 white New York City police officers who thought that he was not cooperating forced him to the ground with one using a “choke hold” that was against Police Department regulations. The video, taken by a citizen, showed the arrested man crying to the police several times that he could not breathe when the pressure was placed by the officer with the choke hold. He man was choked to death. The coroner declared the death a homicide. However, the Staten Island district attorney presented the case to the Grand Jury in such a way that the jury found no reason to indict any of the police officers for any crime. Staten Island is a borough of New York far smaller and more suburban than the rest of New York System and more than half of all the white New York City police officers lived in the only conservative borough of New York where they were a major political force in the election of the borough district attorney. The President told the public that the Justice Department would investigate the case to determine if the victim’s civil rights had been violated.
The power structure of England and the English administrators of South Africa were strong advocates of racial equality at the beginning of the 19th century. They insisted on equal administration of law. However the Boer white population could think of nothing more absurd. In a sense the Boers were much like the Southern Whites at the same time. The South African government however could not enforce its equality policies in the rural area – the majority of South Africa at the time. When democracy and self rule came to South Africa, the racially moderating force of the English was minimized and the majority of South Africans wanted a racially segregated society. Apartheid resulted.
It is surprising that these ideas would come from one of the most autocratic powerful monarch in the world at the time. However there were many very liberal influences on her from Europe. This set of proposals she even sent to Voltaire to get his feedback and criticism.
In 2006, in the midst of the War on Terror, it was revealed that President George W. Bush had approved a electronic surveillance program that was on the surface contrary to the FISA laws prohibiting such government activity. The President claimed that the necessities of the war required such a deviation. A national debate ensued as to whether the President was always required to follow laws as passed or did he have “inherent powers” under the Constitution to do whatever he thought necessary to fight a war.
Neal Kumar Katyal is an American lawyer and academic. He is a partner at Hogan Lovells and the Paul and Patricia Saunders Professor of National Security Law at Georgetown University Law Center. During the Obama administration, Katyal served as Acting Solicitor General of the United States from May 2010 until June 2011. Previously, Katyal served as an attorney in the Solicitor General's office, and as Principal Deputy Solicitor General in the U.S. Justice Department. He is currently a Partner of Chamath Palihapitiya Social+capital Partnership and a member of the board of Social Capital Ventures Inc.
