The beauty of the justice system in America is that an attorney without a big law firm and volumes of law books can win a case, if he has a good argument. But Neal Katyal, former acting solicitor general and Georgetown law professor, thinks young lawyers are losing trust in the court’s ability to resolve problems. His strongly-held belief in the rule of law springs, in part, from the first case he argued in front of the Supreme Court in 2006. “I was scared outta my mind to do the argument,” he says. In the case Hamdan v. Rumsfeld, he was challenging the military tribunals set up by President George W. Bush in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. Katyal’s client, Salim Ahmed Hamdan, was Osama bin Laden’s driver. “In other countries, Mr. Hamdan would have been shot for bringing his case,” says Katyal, “That’s what makes America special.” Katyal is in awe of the duty of the court to treat everyone fairly regardless of where they come from. “We’ve lost that view of the court,” he says, “but it is still there...and I think it’s important for all of us to remember that that’s the role of the court.”

 

Watch Katyal’s conversation at the Aspen Ideas Festival. His latest opinion piece in The New York Times is Why Liberals Should Back Neil Gorsuch.