Theodore Olson, a prominent conservative lawyer who played a key role in securing the presidency for Republican George W. Bush in the 2000 election dispute and later successfully advocated for same-sex marriage rights, passed away on Wednesday at age 84, his law firm Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher announced. The firm did not disclose the cause of death.
A respected constitutional lawyer, Olson served as U.S. Solicitor General under President Bush and held a Justice Department position under President Ronald Reagan. Over his career, Olson argued 65 cases before the U.S. Supreme Court. In a landmark case, he partnered with attorney David Boies to challenge California’s Proposition 8, the 2008 ban on same-sex marriage. Their efforts led the Supreme Court in 2013 to strike down part of a federal law defining marriage strictly as between a man and a woman, and upheld a district court ruling declaring Proposition 8 unconstitutional. Olson and Boies even officiated at the wedding of their clients Paul Katami and Jeff Zarrillo in 2014.
A long-standing member of the conservative Federalist Society, Olson also represented Citizens United in the pivotal campaign finance case that resulted in the Supreme Court’s 2010 decision allowing corporations and labor unions to make unlimited political expenditures. He also defended Chevron in its extensive legal disputes over environmental claims in Ecuador.
In more recent years, Olson successfully argued before the Supreme Court in 2020 to block former President Donald Trump’s attempt to deport “Dreamers,” undocumented immigrants who entered the U.S. as children.
“Ted has been the heart and soul of Gibson Dunn for six decades and made us who we are today,” said Gibson Dunn partner Theodore Boutrous Jr.
Olson endured personal tragedy on September 11, 2001, when his third wife, Barbara Olson, a conservative legal analyst, died in the Pentagon attack. Barbara called him twice from American Airlines Flight 77 after it was hijacked, as detailed in the 9/11 Commission report.
This year, Olson backed a plea deal between the U.S. government and Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the accused mastermind of the 9/11 attacks, and two accomplices. He criticized Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin’s decision to withdraw the deal, which would have eliminated the death penalty for Mohammed and his co-defendants.
Olson married his fourth wife, tax attorney Lady Booth, in 2006 at a Napa Valley ceremony attended by two Supreme Court justices. Olson maintained close friendships with several justices, frequently joining the late Justices Antonin Scalia and Ruth Bader Ginsburg for New Year’s Eve dinners at Ginsburg’s apartment in Washington, D.C.
In related news, President-elect Donald Trump announced on Wednesday his nomination of Senator Marco Rubio for Secretary of State.
