Theodore Olson, conservative lawyer who backed marriage equality, dies at 84

Contributing sentiments towards policy:

56% : He and Boies also wrote a memoir, "Redeeming the Dream: Proposition 8 and the Struggle for Marriage Equality" (2014).
51% : " Mr. Olson successfully defended school vouchers, the recitation of the Pledge of Allegiance in public schools and the bipartisan 2002 McCain-Feingold Act regulating political-campaign financing.
49% : " Overturning gay marriage ban Mr. Olson said he considered his greatest legal legacy to be his role in invalidating California's Proposition 8, a referendum banning same-sex marriage that had passed in 2008 with 52 percent of the vote after the state's Supreme Court legalized same-sex marriage.
37% : Theodore B. Olson, a conservative constitutional lawyer who argued the 2000 Florida vote-recount case that helped George W. Bush secure the presidency and, to much surprise, later joined forces with a liberal opponent from the election lawsuit in a successful effort to overturn California's 2008 ban on same-sex marriage, died Nov. 13 at a hospital in Falls Church, Virginia.
37% : Mr. Olson also said he wasn't trusted by gay rights advocates who feared that Americans were not ready for same-sex marriage and that challenging the ban in court might backfire and set back the cause for years.
35% : In 2013, the Supreme Court avoided ruling on the merits of same-sex marriage, although it affirmed Walker's decision, finding that opponents of same-sex marriage lacked standing to defend Prop 8 in court.
33% : A longtime Republican who helped George W. Bush secure the presidency, he shocked many when he worked to overturn California's ban on same-sex marriage.

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