Free Republic

Ted Olson and his anti-Prop 8 media machine have been aggressively leveraging his past associations with conservative legal causes in support of his newfound support for the invention of a constitutional right to same-sex marriage. In so doing, they’ve tried to obscure the fact that the position that the Constitution can and should be interpreted to invalidate traditional marriage laws can’t possibly be reconciled with the conservative legal principles that Olson used to purport to stand for. (I’m not addressing here the very different question whether a conservative can soundly support legislative revision of marriage laws to include same-sex couples.)...

(CNSNews.com) – Ted Olson, former Solicitor General under President George W. Bush said he is “proud” of Lady Gaga’s support for same sex marriage and credited celebrities for raising public awareness of the issue. “Lady Gaga – I’m very proud that she announced last week that one of the songs on her album – I have no idea which, I don’t – was inspired by the Proposition 8 case – she really said that so I accept her,” said Olson on Monday during a keynote address at a U.S. Justice Department Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender (LGBT) ceremony called “Moving...

Famed attorney Ted Olson told a 9th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel Monday that the reason proponents of Proposition 8 have proffered to justify their ban on same-sex marriage is "nonsense." That reason, said Olson, reading from a page in the argument brief filed by attorneys for the Yes on 8 coalition which promoted passage of California's ban on same-sex marriage, was that same-sex marriage "will make children prematurely preoccupied with issues of sexuality." "If believed," said Olson, "that would justify the banning of comic books, television, video games, and even conversations between children."... "Protecting our children," said Olson,...

Together with my good friend and occasional courtroom adversary David Boies, I am attempting to persuade a federal court to invalidate California's Proposition 8—the voter-approved measure that overturned California's constitutional right to marry a person of the same sex. My involvement in this case has generated a certain degree of consternation among conservatives. How could a politically active, lifelong Republican, a veteran of the Ronald Reagan and George W. Bush administrations, challenge the "traditional" definition of marriage and press for an "activist" interpretation of the Constitution to create another "new" constitutional right? My answer to this seeming conundrum rests on...

Former Democratic presidential candidate and Vermont governor Howard Dean, a hero to many liberals, has called efforts to build an Islamic community center two blocks from the site of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks "a real affront to people who lost their lives." "That site doesn't belong to any particular religion, it belongs to all Americans and all faiths," he said. (snip) Meanwhile, conservative Ted Olson, whose wife died in the terrorist attacks, broke with the majority of conservatives to support the project. He said he believes President Obama "was right about this."

It's one thing for Obama to support the mosque at ground zero, it's another for the former Solicitor General under the Bush Adm. whose wife was killed on the plane that was hi-jacked and crashed into the Pentagon on September 11th to support it...Olsen says: "We don't want to turn an act of hate against us by extremists into an act of intolerance for people of religious faith"...(Video)

It has been quite a journey for Ted Olson. He’s gone from being the conservative lawyer who helped crown W. by winning the Bush v. Gore case before the Supreme Court, to being a lesbian. “Maureen,” he told me in his gravelly voice, “one of the biggest lesbian groups in this country told me I’m already an honorary lesbian.” (snip) Obama sees himself as such a huge change that he can be cautious about other societal changes. But what he doesn’t realize is that legalizing gay marriage is like electing a black president. Before you do it, it seems inconceivable....

Proposition 8, the successful California ballot initiative that led to a state constitutional amendment recognizing only marriage between a man and a woman, is on trial this week in San Francisco. The outcome may overturn the same-sex marriage ban in California and even across the country, if the case is appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court and it rules against the ban. According to Austin Nimocks, one of the Alliance Defense Fund attorneys working to defend Proposition 8, “Any loss for those who are defending marriage on this case will have national ripple effects regardless of the technical legal effect.”...

Together with my good friend and occasional courtroom adversary David Boies, I am attempting to persuade a federal court to invalidate California's Proposition 8—the voter-approved measure that overturned California's constitutional right to marry a person of the same sex.... Many of my fellow conservatives have an almost knee-jerk hostility toward gay marriage. This does not make sense, because same-sex unions promote the values conservatives prize. Marriage is one of the basic building blocks of our neighborhoods and our nation. At its best, it is a stable bond between two individuals who work to create a loving household and a social...

The latest challenge to Prop 8 could be show on television. Ted Olson and David Boies, are suing saying Prop 8 is unconstitutional. The judge has reportedly 'hinted' that he may allow cameras..

Of all the lawyers who might have challenged California's ban on same-sex marriage, one of the least likely candidates would seem to be Theodore Olson: a high-ranking Justice Department attorney under Ronald Reagan, U.S. solicitor general under George W. Bush, and lawyer for Bush in the Bush vs. Gore case that decided the 2000 presidential election. But when a federal judge in San Francisco held a critical hearing last week in a suit by two same-sex couples challenging Proposition 8, they were represented by Olson and David Boies, his courtroom adversary in Bush vs. Gore. Before the hearing, Olson talked...

Gay Marraige and the Consitution (BARF ALERT) Why Ted Olson and I are working to overturn California's Proposition 8. By DAVID BOIES When I got married in California in 1959 there were almost 20 states where marriage was limited to two people of different sexes and the same race. Eight years later the Supreme Court unanimously declared state bans on interracial marriage unconstitutional. Recently, Ted Olson and I brought a lawsuit asking the courts to now declare unconstitutional California's Proposition 8 limitation of marriage to people of the opposite sex. We acted together because of our mutual commitment to the...

SAN FRANCISCO - The attorney representing two same-sex couples who were denied a right to wed in California said on Thursday he expected the case to end up before the U.S. Supreme Court, which has yet to hear a case on the gay marriage issue. "When it does get to the United States Supreme Court, we expect to win," Theodore Olson, who was solicitor general under former President George W. Bush, told reporters after the first hearing on federal lawsuit that was filed in May. A high court ruling potentially could trump state laws prohibiting same-sex unions. Five out of...

Attorneys Ted Olson and David Boies, who faced off in Bush V. Gore, have declared they are working together to do what they can to bring Prop 8 before a federal court claiming it violates the U.S. Constitution. Please watch the following interview with Chris Matthews to fully understand their contentions and my responses in this article: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YUlDZLZ1Gls&feature=player_embedded These two lawyers are claiming that Prop 8 violates fundamental rights protected by the U.S. Constitution and amounts to discrimination in violation of the Equal Protection Clause. The analogies made by these attorneys are perverse. They equate gay marriage with interracial marriage....

Gay-rights lawyers on Wednesday welcomed longtime conservative lawyer Theodore Olson into the fight for same-sex marriage, but warned him and liberal colleague David Boies that they could hurt the cause more than help it by launching an attack on California's Proposition 8 in the federal courts. "There is no end run around the nitty-gritty work of social change," Evan Wolfson, executive director of the New York-based Freedom to Marry, said in a telephone call. "If it was just about hiring a good lawyer and filing a good brief, we'd have won decades ago." Olson, who represented George W. Bush in...

After yesterday’s ruling from the California Supreme Court upholding Proposition 8’s ban on gay marriage but allowing the already-existing gay marriages to remain legal, I predicted that an inventive attorney would attack the judgment in federal court on equal-protection arguments arising from that Solomonic split. That challenge came more quickly than even I predicted, and from an unusual choice of attorneys. Byron York profiles Ted Olson’s decision to make a federal case out of Prop 8: ----------------------------------------------- "The suit argues that the state’s marriage ban, upheld Tuesday by the California Supreme Court, violates the federal constitutional right for same-sex couples...

Washington, D.C. (AHN) - Gay advocates on Wednesday warned against taking the fight to legalize same-sex marriages to federal courts, saying doing so will make it more difficult to gain marriage equality. The same day, lawyers who were at opposing sides of the Bush v. Gore case in the 2000 presidential race filed a lawsuit appealing the California Supreme Court's decision to uphold Proposition 8. In a joint statement, the American Civil Rights Union (ACLU), Lambda Legal, National Center for Lesbian Rights and other prominent liberal groups said filing "ill-timed, premature" lawsuits based on the federal Constitution. "Pushing the federal...

Gay rights advocates Wednesday blasted two veteran attorneys for filing a federal lawsuit seeking to overturn Proposition 8, California's voter-approved same-sex marriage ban, saying the move is premature and could be disastrous for the marriage movement. While they knew of the objections, attorneys Theodore B. Olson and David Boies - who opposed each other during the 2000 Bush v. Gore presidential election case - filed the suit Friday in San Francisco on behalf of two same-sex couples who wanted to be married but were denied because of Prop. 8. The suit claims the voter-approved measure, which the California Supreme Court...

Los Angeles (myFOXla.com) - Two attorneys who squared off in the legal battle that decided the 2000 presidential election will team up Wednesday to file a federal lawsuit claiming that the ban on same-sex marriage imposed by the passage of Proposition 8 violates the U.S. Constitution. Theodore B. Olson and David Boies plan to file the lawsuit in U.S. District Court in Los Angeles on behalf of two gay men and two lesbian women, arguing that the proposition violates the U.S. constitutional guarantee of equal protection and due process. The complaint will also ask for an injunction blocking Proposition 8...

A strange-bedfellows duo of top constitutional lawyers said today they are challenging the legal validity of Proposition 8, the November 2008 ballot measure that prohibited same-sex marriages in California. Speaking at a Los Angeles press conference, attorneys Theodore B. Olson and David Boies said they had filed a suit in federal court on behalf of two gay California couples, and would seek an injunction to stay the law while arguing it is a violation of the equal-protection clause of the U.S. Constitution. Olson, a former U.S. solicitor general, represented former President George W. Bush in Bush v. Gore, which decided...