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

Olson was a kind and gracious lawyer who won landmark conservative Supreme Court rulings.

These included the Bush vs. Gore that made George W. Bush president and the Citizens United ruling that overturned campaign spending bans.

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

Olson surprised many when he agreed to lead the challenge to California’s Proposition 8 and ban on same-sex marriage.

“I wanted to send the message that it wasn’t Republican or Democrat, conservative or liberal, that it was about human rights and human decency,” he said in an interview with The Times.

Olson sued on behalf of two gay couples, and Judge Vaughn Walker ruled that it was unconstitutional discrimination to deny them the right to marry.

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

Although the decision was procedural, it cleared 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 that 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. When I talk about it, I get very emotional,” Olson said.

Just last week, California voters officially removed Proposition 8 from the state Constitution and enshrined the right to marry.

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

He was a law student at UC Berkeley in 1964, where he said he was one of the only students to support Republican Barry Goldwater in his losing run for president.

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

Reagan chose William French Smith, a partner at Gibson Dunn, as US Attorney General. Smith then tapped Olson to lead the Justice Department’s Office of Legal Counsel.

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

In 1984, he left the administration and helped establish Gibson Dunn’s Washington office.

For the next 40 years, he worked there, except for a four-year stint as US solicitor general representing the Bush administration.
He argued 60 cases before the Supreme Court both as a private and government lawyer.

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

The case of Bush vs. Gore was held over five days in early December 2000. Olson filed an emergency appeal to stop the recount of untabulated paper ballots in Florida. He said that because there are no agreed-upon standards for deciding when a defective ballot can be counted, the result would vary from county to county.

At noon on Saturday, the court granted his appeal by a 5-4 vote and agreed to hold a hearing on Monday. Late Tuesday night, the court ended the Florida recount in an unsigned opinion with four dissenters.

Upon taking office, Bush chose Olson to represent his administration in court.

Olson was in his Justice Department office on September 11, 2001, when he received a call from his wife, Barbara. She had boarded an American Airlines flight to Los Angeles that was hijacked. A few minutes later, the call was disconnected. The plane had crashed into the Pentagon, killing all on board.

He said he believes he has been fortunate to have a busy legal career as well as many friends to get him through the pain.

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

“When you look discrimination in the face — these people who stood up and testified 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 bit more than he used to.”

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This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.