Ethics

Ted Olson Joins Fight for Marriage Equality

By Ed Brayton

In a major double take moment, Ted Olson - former Solicitor General and one of the grand old lions among judicial conservatives - has joined the legal team fighting in federal court to overturn all bans on gay marriage and argue for a federal constitutional right to marry someone of the same sex.

Former Bush administration solicitor general Theodore Olson is part of a team that has filed suit in federal court in California seeking to overturn Proposition 8 and re-establish the right of same-sex couples to marry.

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 to marry. The complaint was filed Friday, and Olson and co-counsel David Boies -- who argued against Olson in the Bush v. Gore case -- will hold a news conference in Los Angeles Wednesday to explain the case. The conference will feature the two same-sex couples on whose behalf Olson filed suit.

Full post as published by Dispatches from the Culture Wars on May 28, 2009 (boomark / email).