Theodore Olson

Theodore Olson
42nd Solicitor General of the United States
In office June 11, 2001 – July 10, 2004
President	George W. Bush
Preceded by	Barbara Underwood
Succeeded by	Paul Clement
United States Assistant Attorney General for the Office of Legal Counsel
In office 1981–1984
President	Ronald Reagan
Preceded by	John Harmon
Succeeded by	Charles Cooper
Personal details
Born	Theodore Bevry Olson (1940-09-11) September 11, 1940 Chicago, Illinois, U.S.
Political party	Republican
Spouse(s)	Barbara Olson (1996–2001; her death) Lady Booth (2006–present)
Alma mater	University of the Pacific UC Berkeley School of Law

Theodore Bevry Olson (born September 11, 1940) is an American lawyer, practicing at the Washington, D.C. office of Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher. Olson served as United States Solicitor General from June 2001 to July 2004 under President George W. Bush.

Early life

Theodore Olson was born in Chicago and grew up in the San Francisco Bay Area in Mountain View, California. He graduated from Los Altos High in 1958. In 1962, Olson completed his undergraduate degrees in communications and history at the University of the Pacific. He attended law school, earning his law degree from Boalt Hall School of Law at the University of California, Berkeley^[1] in 1965.^[2] At Boalt, Olson served as a contributor to the California Law Review.

Legal career

Olson joined the Los Angeles, California office of Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher as an associate in 1965. In 1972, he was named Partner.^[3]

From 1981 to 1984, Olson served as an Assistant Attorney General (Office of Legal Counsel) in the Reagan administration.^[4] While serving in the Reagan administration, Olson was legal counsel to President Reagan during the Iran-Contra affair's investigation phase.^[4] Olson was also the assistant Attorney General for the Office of Legal Counsel when then President Ronald Reagan ordered the Administrator of the EPA to withhold the documents on the ground that they contained "enforcement sensitive information." This led to an investigation by the House Judiciary Committee that later produced a report suggesting Olson had given false and misleading testimony before a House subcommittee during the investigation. The Judiciary Committee forwarded a copy of the report to the Attorney General requesting the appointment of an independent counsel investigation.

Olson argued that the independent counsel took executive powers away from the office of the President of the United States and created a hybrid "fourth branch" of government that was ultimately answerable to no one. He argued that the broad powers of the independent counsel could be easily abused, or corrupted by partisanship. In the Supreme Court Case Morrison v. Olson, the Court disagreed with Olson and found in favor of the Plaintiff and independent counsel Alexia Morrison.

He returned to private law practice as a partner in the Washington, D.C. office of his firm, Gibson Dunn.

A high-profile client in the 1980s was Jonathan Pollard, who had been convicted of selling government secrets to Israel. Olson handled the appeal to United States Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit. Olson argued the life sentence Pollard received was in violation of the plea bargain agreement, which had specifically excluded a life sentence. Olson also argued that the violation of the plea bargain was grounds for a mistrial. The Court of Appeals ruled (2‑1) that no grounds for mistrial existed.

Department of Justice portrait of Theodore Olson

Olson argued a dozen cases before the Supreme Court prior to becoming Solicitor General;^[5] In one case, he argued against federal sentencing guidelines, and in a case in New York state, he defended a member of the press who had first leaked the Anita Hill story.^[4] Olson successfully represented presidential candidate George W. Bush in the Supreme Court case Bush v. Gore, which effectively ended the recount of the contested 2000 Presidential election.

Olson was nominated for the office of Solicitor General by President Bush on February 14, 2001, was confirmed by the United States Senate on May 24, 2001, and took office on June 11, 2001. In July 2004, Olson retired as Solicitor General and returned to private practice at the Washington office of Gibson Dunn.

In 2006 Olson represented a defendant journalist in the civil case filed by Wen Ho Lee and pursued the appeal to the Supreme Court.^[6] Lee sued the federal government to discover which public officials had named him as a suspect to journalists before he had been charged.^[6] Olson wrote a brief on behalf of one of the journalists involved in the case, saying that journalists should not have to identify confidential sources, even if subpoenaed by a court.^[6] In 2011, Olson represented the National Football League Players Association in the 2011 NFL lockout.^[7][8]

Olson, over time, came to believe that there is a constitutional right for same-sex marriage.^[9] In 2009 he joined with David Boies, his opposing counsel in Bush v. Gore, to bring a federal lawsuit, Perry v. Schwarzenegger, challenging Proposition 8, a California state constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriage.^[10] His work on the lawsuit earned him a place among the Time 100's greatest thinkers.^[11] In 2011 Olson and David Boies were awarded the ABA Medal, the highest award of the American Bar Association.^[12]

Bibliography

• Olson, Theodore B. (2006). The Senate Confirmation Process: Advise and Consent, or Search and Destroy?. Washington, D.C.: National Legal Center for the Public Interest. OCLC 70790172. 
• Boies, David & Olson, Theodore B. (2014). Redeeming the Dream: The Case for Marriage Equality. New York: Viking. ISBN 9780670015962. 

Personal life

Olson has been married four times. Olson's third wife,^[13] Barbara Olson, was a passenger on the hijacked American Airlines Flight 77 that was crashed into the Pentagon on September 11, 2001. Her original plan had been to fly to California on September 10, but she delayed until the next morning so that she could wake up with her husband on his birthday, September 11.^[14][15] On October 21, 2006, Olson married Lady Booth, a tax attorney from Kentucky and a lifelong Democrat.^[13][16]

Politics

Olson was a founding member of the Federalist Society.^[17] He has served on the board of directors of American Spectator magazine.^[18] Olson was a prominent critic of Bill Clinton's presidency, and he helped prepare the attorneys of Paula Jones prior to their Supreme Court appearance.^[4] Olson served Giuliani's 2008 presidential campaign as judicial committee chairman.^[17] In 2012 he participated in Paul Ryan's preparation for the Vice Presidential debate, portraying Joe Biden.^[19] He is one of the outspoken advocates for gay marriage in the Republican party.^[20]

Executive appointment speculation

Prior to President Bush's nomination of D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals Judge John G. 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 September 2007 Olson was considered by the Bush administration for the post of Attorney General to succeed Alberto Gonzales. The Democrats, however, were so vehemently opposed that Bush nominated Michael Mukasey instead.^[21]

References

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Theodore Olson.

• Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher profile
• Dept. of Justice biography
• Appearances on C-SPAN
• Campaign contributions made by Theodore Olson

United States Solicitors General Bristow Phillips Goode Jenks Chapman Taft Aldrich Maxwell Conrad Richards Hoyt Bowers Lehmann Bullitt Davis King Frierson Beck Mitchell Hughes Thacher Biggs Reed Jackson Biddle Fahy McGrath Perlman Cummings Sobeloff Rankin Cox Marshall Griswold Bork McCree Lee Fried Starr Days Dellinger Waxman Underwood Olson Clement Garre Kneedler Kagan Katyal Verrilli Acting officeholders shown in italics