Why Olson Joined The Other Team

by Patrick Appel

Dale Carpenter analyzes this NYT profile of Ted Olson, the distinguished conservative lawyer who filed a suit challenging the legality of prop 8:

One interesting thing about the article is how few right-leaning commentators are cited as publicly criticizing Olson, a stalwart of the Federalist Society and the conservative/libertarian legal movement since the Reagan era. Robert Bork doesn't want to get into a public argument about it. He just wants to know why Olson joined the other team. William Bradford Reynolds mildly chides Olson for taking "a more assertive view of how one should interpret the Constitution than you would normally expect Ted to take." A quote from Stephen Calabresi implies that Olson's lawsuit might echo "a certain libertarian squishiness at the Office of Legal Counsel [in the Reagan Justice Department] under Ted."

Carpenter goes on to pick apart that last quote and wonder about Libertarian support for marriage equality.