WASHINGTON— Theodore B. Olson, a conservative lawyer who helped win the right to gay marriage in California, died Wednesday at the age of 84.

Olson was a well-intentioned and kind lawyer who won groundbreaking conservative decisions from the Supreme Court.

These include Bush, which made George W. Bush president, etc. There was also the Gore decision and the Citizens United decision, which lifted bans on campaign spending.

Four years ago, he represented so-called Dreamers in a Supreme Court immigration case and won a 5-4 decision that blocked the first Trump administration from repealing protections for young immigrants who came to this country with their parents.

Olson surprised many when she agreed to lead the fight against California’s Proposition 8 and its gay marriage ban.

“I wanted to send the message that this is not Republican or Democrat, conservative or liberal, this is about human rights and human dignity,” he said in an interview with The Times.

Olson filed a lawsuit on behalf of two gay couples, and Judge Vaughn Walker ruled that denying them the right to marry was unconstitutional discrimination.

Proponents of the proposal appealed, but the Supreme Court ruled in 2013 that they did not represent the state and did not have any status.

Although the decision was procedural, it paved the way for same-sex couples to marry in California. Two years later, the court ruled that the Constitution protected same-sex marriage nationwide.

He said he lost some conservative friends at the time who were no longer willing to join him for lunch or come to his house for dinner.
The case “changed my life a lot. I get very emotional when I talk about it,” Olson said later.

Just last week, California voters officially removed the 8th Amendment from the state constitution and enshrined the right to marry.

Olson was born in Chicago in 1940 and grew up in Mountain View, California.

In 1964, he was a law student at UC Berkeley, where he said he was one of the only students to support Republican Barry Goldwater in his losing presidential race.

When Ronald Reagan was elected president in 1980, Olson was an attorney at Gibson Dunn in Los Angeles.

Reagan selected Gibson Dunn associate William French Smith as U.S. attorney general. Smith then selected Olson to head the Justice Department’s Office of Legal Counsel.

Olson would later represent Reagan as his personal attorney after he left the White House.

He left the administration in 1984 and helped establish the Gibson Dunn office in Washington.

He worked there for the next 40 years, except for a four-year stint as U.S. Attorney representing the Bush administration.
He argued 60 cases before the Supreme Court as both a private lawyer and a government lawyer.

“Ted has been the heart and soul of Gibson Dunn for six decades and made us who we are today,” said Theodore J. Boutrous Jr., a partner at Gibson Dunn in Los Angeles who regularly collaborates with Olson on major cases. “Not only was he a unique lawyer, mentor, role model and friend, but he also made immeasurable contributions to the rule of law, our Constitution and our country. We will miss him with all our hearts.”

Bush vs. The Gore trial was concluded within five days in early December 2000. Olson filed an emergency petition to stop the recount of undocumented paper ballots in Florida. The outcome will vary from county to county, he said, because there are no agreed-upon standards for determining when a defective ballot can be counted.

At noon on Saturday, the court accepted his objection by a vote of 5 to 4 and ordered the hearing to be held on Monday. Late that Tuesday evening, the court ended the Florida recount with an unsigned opinion and four dissenting votes.

After taking office, Bush chose Olson to represent his administration before the court.

Olson received a phone call from his wife, Barbara, while he was in the Justice Department office in the early hours of September 11, 2001. He had boarded a hijacked American Airlines flight to Los Angeles. After a few minutes the call was disconnected. The plane crashed into the Pentagon and everyone on board died.

He said he believes he is lucky to have a busy legal career and to have many friends who can help him get through this pain.

He later remarried and his wife, Lady Booth Olson, was a Democrat and more liberal. He said the gay marriage case changed him.

“When you look at the face of discrimination, these people standing up and testifying for hours about what it’s like to be denied the right to marry, it’s transformative,” she said in a 2013 interview with The Times. “I think he’s starting to open his mind and hear a little more than he used to.”