RIP Ted Olson
Ted Olson, Former Solicitor General Who Argued Bush v. Gore, Dies -- Despite being known as a conservative lawyer, Olson notably teamed up with his opposing counsel in the Bush case, David Boies, to challenge a California amendment against same-sex marriage.
Theodore "Ted" Olson, who served as U.S. solicitor general under President George W. Bush, died on Wednesday, according to his longtime firm, Gibson Dunn & Crutcher. He was 84.
Olson was solicitor general from 2001 to 2004. From 1981 to 1984, he was assistant attorney general in charge of the Office of Legal Counsel in the U.S. Department of Justice. Other than those two time periods, he was a lawyer with Gibson Dunn in Los Angeles and Washington, D.C., since 1965 ....
He argued 65 cases in the Supreme Court, including the winning sides in the two Bush v. Gore cases arising out of the 2000 presidential election and the landmark campaign finance case Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission. He also successfully argued Hollingsworth v. Perry, the case upholding the overturning of California's Proposition 8 banning same-sex marriages, and U.S. Department of Homeland Security v. Regents of the University of California, which successfully challenged the Trump administration's rescission of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, the firm said.