Theodore Olson, 84, best known as the attorney taking the Republican side in Bush v. Gore, has died. The opposing attorney in the case was David Boies.
After the decision, Olson and Boies worked together to defend LGBTQ rights. They opposed the implementation of Proposition 8 in California, which banned marriage equality in the state before the Obergefell decision.
Together they argued that LGBTQ equal rights wasn’t a liberal or a conservative issue, but a basic human rights issue. They wrote the book Redeeming the Dream: The Case for Marriage Equality and were featured in an HBO documentary The Case Against 8.
Olson served as Solicitor General in the first G.W. Bush administration and was an assistant attorney general in the Reagan administration.