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Ted Olson has litigated a number of controversial cases: |
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a) In 1993, Olson defended a government-funded academy, the Virginia Military Institute (VMI), against charges that VMI's refusal to allow women to attend the institution amounted to impermissible sex discrimination.
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b) In 1996, Ted Olson represented Officer Stacey Koon of the Los Angeles Police Department in an appeal to the Supreme Court over the length of the sentence Koon received for his federal civil rights conviction in the 1991 beating of Rodney King.
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c) Also in 1996, Olson joined with the Center for Individual Rights (CIR) to litigate the landmark Hopwood decision that banned affirmative action programs in university admissions throughout the Fifth Circuit. CIR has received funding from the notorious Pioneer Fund, which has funded many of the foremost American race scientists of this century, such as Arthur Jensen, Roger Pearson, J. Philippe Rushton, and Linda Gottfredson.
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Question
As Solicitor General of the United States will Mr. Olson defend government funded sex discrimination; what is his position on mandatory sentencing policies; and particularly in light of ongoing litigation about federal programs benefiting minority contractors, what role will his personal views on affirmative action play when he frames arguments on behalf of the government? |
| 2. |
Until April 2001, Olson was a member of the Board of Visitors (formerly named the Board of Trustees) of the Federalist Society for Law and Public Policy, the largest networking organization of the legal right wing. Olson was also president of the Washington, D.C. chapter of their Lawyers Division. |
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The appointment of Ted Olson as Solicitor General is not reflective merely of Olson's prominence in conservative legal circles, but rather signals an important step in the continuing effort to move an entire agenda, backed by a highly organized infrastructure, into the highest echelons of legal life. Detailed in the Institute for Democracy Studies' report, The Federalist Society and the Challenge to a Democratic Jurisprudence, as one of the Federalist Society's most prominent leaders, Ted Olson has helped the Federalist Society emerge as the most influential right wing legal network in the country. |
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Question
What does Olson envision as the proper relation between private organizations, such as the Federalist Society, and the office of Solicitor General? |
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The Federalist Society has emerged as a powerful coalition of ultra-conservative and libertarian activists developing comprehensive challenges to the basic precepts of constitutional law. Backed by millions of dollars from leading right wing and libertarian foundations, and armed with political cover from its prominent leadership - exemplified by Ted Olson - the Federalist Society is successfully shaping emerging jurisprudence. They have fifteen practice groups spanning the entire spectrum of the law including: federalism, civil rights, telecommunications, church-state relations, and free speech and election law. |
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Although the Federalist Society officially claims not to take positions, their publications and events serve as platforms to mainstream positions that were previously considered extremist. Ted Olson, as one of 11 members of the Federalist Society's Board of Visitors plays a significant role in the "visionary input" of the Society. Accordingly, it is appropriate to question whether Olson's "visionary input" has been incorporated in the support of positions that his organization, the Federalist Society, promotes, and how this would shape his positions as Solicitor General of the United States. |
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a) The Summer 1998 issue of the Federalist Society's "Corporations, Securities and Antitrust News" featured a front-page article entitled, "The Case for Abolishing the SEC." |
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Question
As Solicitor General will Olson use his discretion to pursue extreme deregulatory legal positions exemplified by the assertion that the Security and Exchange Commission should be abolished? |
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b) In the Federalist Society's "Professional Responsibility News," Vol. 1, No. 2, the suggestion is made to "declare that law is a business and end lawyers' monopoly on the practice of law." |
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Question
In Olson's high profile leadership role in the American legal system as Solicitor General of the United States will he promote this vision of the legal profession? |
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c) The leading members of the Federalist Society's Civil Rights Practice Group are a "Who's Who" of today's anti-civil rights agenda. Articles and litigation in which some practice group leaders have participated spotlight the supposed inequity of the traditional civil rights infrastructure, using examples such as voting rights laws, gender equity protections, and desegregation orders. |
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Question
As Solicitor General of the United States, a position in which Olson must pursue the government's position on behalf of all the people, will he support the traditional civil rights infrastructure granting federal oversight and seeking federal remedies to existing racial, gender, and other inequities? |
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d) The May 9, 2000 web page of the Federalist Society's Free Speech and Election Law practice group suggests that "Justice Department efforts to silence tobacco companies by bringing lawsuits under novel theories using RICO and the Social Security Act" is an example of the federal government's attempts to suppress free speech. |
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Question
As Solicitor General Olson has the discretion to determine the positions the government will take before the Court. To what extent does he agree with the view aired in the Federalist Society publication mentioned above that the Justice Department's litigation against the tobacco industry is an infringement on the tobacco industry's right to free speech? |
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e) Federalist Society Labor and Employment News articles have addressed such issues as celebrating the defeat of disparate impact theory in a California age discrimination case and generally decrying sexual harassment law, application of Title IX, and the Americans with Disabilities Act. |
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Question
To what extent will Olson use his discretion as Solicitor General both in appealing lower court cases and in seeking Supreme Court review to pursue an anti-labor law agenda such as that outlined in Federalist Society articles above? |
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f) The leadership of the Religious Liberties practice group of the Federalist Society includes some of the strongest advocates of the erosion of the constitutional separation of church and state. Recent newsletter articles have discussed the distribution of religious materials at schools and creationism. |
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Question
To what extent will Olson pursue litigation on behalf of the government that permits a) prayer in public schools, or b) the teaching of creationism in federally funded schools? |
| 4. |
Former Iran-Contra special prosecutor, Lawrence Walsh, wrote that he was "especially troubled that one of White House Counsel C. Boyden Gray's assistants had openly declared that no one who was not a member of the Federalist Society had received a judicial appointment from [former] President Bush." C. Boyden Gray is also a member of the Federalist Society's Board of Visitors as well as Chair of their Business Advisory Council. As former President Bush's White House Counsel, Gray employed Lee Liberman Otis, a co-founder of the Federalist Society, as a key player in the screening of candidates for the federal bench. |
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Additionally, the Federalist Society has targeted the American Bar Association (ABA). The effects of the Federalist Society's "ABA Watch" project are reflected in the March 2001 White House decision to remove the American Bar Association from its historic role in providing candid evaluations of judicial nominees while the nominations were still confidential. Through the Federalist Society's "ABA Watch" project, Society members have been involved at all levels of a continuing attack on the ABA, including labeling the mainstream trade organization of American lawyers as a "political interest group," and issuing "voter guides" in an unprecedented effort to influence the governance of the ABA. |
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Question
What is Olson's position on the role of the ABA and the Federalist Society in the judicial selection process? |
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Question
As Solicitor General of the United States, Olson serves in one of the two most highly respected legal positions in the country. What relationship does he feel it is appropriate to maintain his prominent position in such an ideologically right-wing organization as the Federalist Society, which has sought to disproportionately influence the judicial selection process and discredit the largest governing body of attorneys in the country? |
