India Abroad May 21, 2010
US SPECIAL/LEGAL LANDMARK
A15
Three Indian Americans in solicitor
general race, make community history
; A14
Sreenivasan
backs Srinivasan
decade that Indian Americans have come to the forefront as
top-notch litigators and leading public servants in federal
and state legal agencies. A couple of decades ago, it was just
a handful of Indian Americans who pursued law degrees at
the top law schools in the country.”
Highly placed sources said although the others can’t yet be
counted out, the choice may come down to Katyal and
Verrilli, who are both well known and liked by US Attorney
General Eric Holder. Katyal worked for Holder when he was
deputy attorney general in the Clinton administration as his
national security adviser. Verrilli is a close friend of Holder,
it was Verrilli who helped Holder craft the Justice
Department new state secrets doctrine guidelines.
Katyal is well known to Obama, and at the time the
President was a US Senator, at least on two occasions he had
Katyal over to discuss the constitutionality of legislation —
both are constitutional law experts with Obama having
taught constitutional law at the University of Chicago —
pending in the Senate. Katyal also became a veritable rock
star in liberal circles when he took on the Bush administration in the Supreme Court in defense of Salim Hamdan, a
Yemeni native accused of being Osama bin Laden’s chauffeur and bodyguard and being held in Guantanamo Bay.
Since Kagan was nominated, Katyal has been the acting
solicitor general, and May 12, filed the first set of briefs as the
acting solicitor general in the Supreme Court. This was the
first time that such briefs have been signed by a non-white or
an African American in American legal history in the
Supreme Court. The first African American to do so was
Drew Days, solicitor general in the Clinton administration.
AZIZ HANIFFA
Professor Sreenath ‘Sree’ Sreenivasan, dean of student affairs, Columbia University School of Journalism, and founder of the South Asian Journalists Association,
backed his namesake, Sri Srinivasan, a partner at
the law firm of O’Melveny & Myers LLP, for the
next solicitor general.
“Several times a year,” Sre quipped, “my inbox
fills up with messages from people who confuse
me with Sri Srinivasan. I tell people he is more
important, more powerful and the most influen-
tial person in the US with that name. So, instead
of being upset about sharing that name, I am
delighted.”
“He’s a terrific lawyer who handles high profile
cases, including the recent one before the US
Supreme Court, which he won 9-0. I thought it
was impossible in today’s court; even deciding on
the color of the sky would result in a 5-4 verdict!”
Sreenivasan was referring to the Hertz Corp ver-
sus Friend case that Srinivasan argued before the
Supreme Court in a case where he addressed the
question of what standards should apply in deter-
mining a company’s principal place of business
for purposes of diversity jurisdiction.
Srinivasan also appeared for former Enron
Corporation chief executive officer Jeffrey
Skilling, in Skilling versus US, arguing whether
Skilling was convicted of violating an unconstitutional law. That the federal statute prohibiting
‘honest services’ fraud is unconstitutionally vague
and that Skilling did not receive a fair trial by an
impartial jury. A ruling is expected in the fall.
Sree said it was only in the US that so many
Indian Americans in the US solicitor general fray
“says a lot more about America than it does about
them. What a great country this is that these guys
with funny names could have this kind of an
impact!”
Akhil Reed Amar
‘This is a professorial position in the American
government, and Neal has that credential’
AZIZ HANIFFA
Akhil Reed Amar, Sterling professor of law and political science, Yale Law School, considered one of the most influential legal thinkers of
modern times in the United States, strongly believes that his former student Neal
Katyal, currently principal deputy solicitor
general, “should be the obvious and natural
choice,” to replace US Solicitor General
Elena Kagan, nominated to the Supreme
Court by President Barack Obama.
Amar, an expert on constitutional and
criminal law and author of the highly
acclaimed America’s Constitution: A
Biography, who has taught at the Yale Law
School and Yale College for over two
decades, told India Abroad that Katyal
should be the next solicitor general because
“first, he is the current deputy. He’s in place
and his ascension would preserve continu-
ity and tradition.”
“In the Bush administration, both Paul
Clement and Greg Garre were the deputies
and they became solicitor general,” he
noted.
