Welcome to Original Jurisdiction, the latest legal publication by me, David Lat. You can learn more about Original Jurisdiction by reading its About page, and you can email me at davidlat@substack.com. This is a reader-supported publication; you can subscribe by clicking on the button below. Thanks!

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Who is the leading public intellectual of the Supreme Court bar? Neal Katyal—Hogan Lovells partner, Georgetown Law professor, and former Acting Solicitor General—would have a very strong claim to the title.

Many SCOTUS advocates focus on winning high-court cases for their clients, but Neal aspires to more: he contributes to our national discourse. His scholarship has been published in top law reviews, including the Harvard Law Review and Yale Law Journal. He writes op-eds for leading newspapers, including the New York Times and Washington Post. He authored a Times bestseller, Impeach: The Case Against Donald Trump. He makes frequent appearances on television and radio as a legal-affairs commentator. He comments on the news of the day to his more than 800,000 Twitter followers. And later this year, he’s coming to Substack—exciting news that he shared in my recent podcast interview of him.

I’ve known Neal for a long time, and I’d been wanting to have him on the show for a while. Now turned out to be great, for two reasons. First, just last week, he made his 50th oral argument before the Supreme Court—a major milestone that few SCOTUS advocates can claim. Second, May is Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) Heritage Month, and Neal has argued more Supreme Court cases than any other AAPI lawyer—or, for that matter, any other lawyer of color.

Congratulations to Neal on his 50th SCOTUS argument, and thanks to him for joining me. You can listen to the podcast via the embed at the top of this post, or through Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or your podcasting platform of choice.

Show Notes:

Prefer reading to listening? For paid subscribers, a transcript of the entire episode appears below.

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