Theodore Olson

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Theodore Olson

Theodore Bevry Olson (born September 11, 1940) was the 42nd United States Solicitor General, serving from June 2001 to July 2004.

Born in Chicago, Olson completed his undergraduate degree at the University of the Pacific. After earning his law degree from Boalt Hall at the University of California, Berkeley, he worked as an associate and a partner in the Los Angeles, CA office of the law firm Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher LLP. He then served as an Assistant Attorney General in the Reagan administration before returning to private practice as a partner in the Washington, D.C. office of his former law firm. While serving in the Reagan administration, Olson had defended President Reagan during the Iran-Contra affair.

Olson had also gained notability by acting as attorney for convicted spy Jonathan Pollard while he was in private practice. Olson had appealed to United States Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit claiming that during Pollard's trial, the life sentence he received was in violation of the plea bargain agreement, which had specifically taken life off the table. Olson also argued that in violation of said plea bargain, that was grounds for a mistrial. The Court of Appeals, in a panel of three judges, voted 2-1 that no grounds existed for a mistrial. Future Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg cast the deciding vote against Pollard's motion.

Olson successfully represented presidential candidate George W. Bush in the Supreme Court case Bush v. Gore, which effectively determined the final result of the contested 2000 Presidential election.

He was nominated to the Office of Solicitor General by President Bush on February 14, 2001, confirmed by the United States Senate on May 24, 2001, and took office on June 11, 2001.

Olson's third wife, Barbara K. Olson, was a passenger on the hijacked American Airlines Flight 77 that was crashed into the Pentagon on September 11, 2001 (his 61^st birthday). The following year Olson met Lady Bloom, a tax attorney and native of Kentucky, and the two were married on October 21, 2006 in Napa, CA[1].

Prior to President Bush's nomination of D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals Judge John Roberts, Olson was considered a potential nominee to the Supreme Court of the United States to fill Sandra Day O'Connor's post. Following the withdrawal of Harriet Miers' nomination for that post, and prior to the nomination of Third Circuit Court of Appeals Judge Samuel Alito, Olson's name was again mentioned as a possible nominee.

In July 2004, Olson retired as Solicitor General. President Bush nominated Paul Clement to be Olson's successor, who was confirmed to the position by the United States Senate.