Ted Olson—a former solicitor general who served two Republican presidents (George W. Bush and Ronald Reagan) but who also argued in favor of marriage equality—has died at age 84, CNN reported. Olson’s death was reported on the website of Gibson Dunn, the law firm where Olson worked.
Olson argued some of the biggest cases of recent decades, including a win on behalf of Bush in the 2000 Florida presidential election recount dispute that went before the U.S. Supreme Court.
One of Olson’s most prominent cases put him at odds with fellow conservatives. After California adopted a ban on marriage equality in 2008, Olson teamed with former adversary David Boies—who had represented Democrat Al Gore in the presidential election case—to represent California couples seeking the right to wed. A federal judge in California ruled in 2010 that the state’s ban, Prop 8, violated the Constitution. The U.S. Supreme Court let that decision stand in 2013. (In 2015, that same court ruled in favor of national marriage equality in Obergefell v. Hodges.) In a documentary, Olson called the case “the most important thing I’ve ever done, as an attorney or a person.”
A couple of Olson’s other high-profile clients included quarterback Tom Brady during the “Deflategate” scandal of 2016; and technology company Apple in a legal battle with the FBI over unlocking the phone of a shooter who killed 14 people in San Bernardino, California, in 2015.
During his career, Olson argued more than 60 cases before the U.S. Supreme Court, according to Gibson Dunn.
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