. >> bret: ted olson also joined bush's legal team. >> our opponents made her into a bit of a devil,ruella de vil characteristic. >> i looked at the statute and the secretary of state may reject late filing ballots. >> bret: leon county circuit judge terry lewis ruled harris did not have to extend the deadline. >> she has discretion to reject it. >> vice president gore and i have no choice but to contest these actions. >> the democrats had to find a way to overturn the result by hook or by crook. >> bret: the vice president filed an election contest action challenging recounts in three counties. >> they wanted to rush it. i'm not going be rushed. >> the trial was not any great impediment as long as it happened quickly. >> bret: gore's legal team wanted to have a decision by december 12 by was before the deadline for florida's final vote count. >> in a number of counties votes that had been fairly counted were simply set aside and many votes that were cast have not yet been counted at all. >> the republicans say wait just a minute. there has to be some determination it is in necessary

. >> honorable commissioners, my name is ted olson. i am a member of the mission dolores neighborhood association, a member of the mopcac, and a resident of the neighborhood. i would like to congratulate prado for meeting with us so often. it is obvious from all the other comments how responsive they have been in that regard. i also congratulate them on the idea of their web site, which has been an opportunity for the public to see what is being done, and particularly for the care which they took in making the project sustainable. like my previous colleagues from the market octavia plan cac, i am very concerned about the whole foods. first of all, i think wholefoods is an excellent business in itself. i commend them for their green and sustainable operation. but like my other colleagues, i want to make sure that there is -- that after one year we come back and reassess to make sure that the traffic is being handled well and monitored by them. this is a real concern both on dolores street -- you have to maintain the two-way traffic ther

. >> reporter: that's the main argument attorney ted olson made before the three judges of the ninth circuit court of appeals in the battle over proposition 8 passed by a majority of californians who said marriage is between a man and a woman. during the hearing, the judges focused on california's extending nearly all the rights of opposite sex married couples to same-sex couples. >> you have all of the aspects of marriage other than the title. what is the reason for wanting to take that title away? >> the people of california needed no reason beyond the fact that they disagreed that their constitution ordained that result. that their constitution outlawed and invalidated the traditional definition 6 marriage. >> reporter: reinhardt is considered the liberal supporter of same-sex marriage. conservative judge randy smith thought the tilt toward traditional marriage. all eyes are on judge michael hawkins considered more moderate. >> i thought think did at a good job at not tipping their hands. >> reporter: in legal terms the prop 8 crowd says this case comes down to whether the idea of

today, barack obama is to the right on gay marriage of dick cheney and ted olson who won the bush-gore case. and young general race who he needs to motivate. on his ability to drive the agenda, you saw two different tactics, you saw on the tax cut working out a deal with the republican leadership. on the start and on don't ask, don't tell, working around the republican leadership and getting enough republicans on board. he is testing out in a test- driveway. gwen: loophole he could drive a truck through if he believes there could be action. he might change his mind but he is not going to go out there and force it. >> he seemed to be a more liberated president in this post-election period. after the first several weeks, that set the whole white house back. but your point that he had to stand with the democrats when he came in as president and now he feels obviously he can stand somewhat more on his own and he will try to make his deals where he can and he will try to keep his base satisfied. gwen: i'm going to coin a phrase that i hope everyone will go viral, opportunistic bipartisanshi

ted olson, david boyce as you've seen nationally. what sort of effect could that have? >> it's going to make for a landmark argument. certainly some of the best legal arguments we've seen in any case in decades. but whether it affects the judges personally, i don't think so. these are judges used to having the best legal talent in america in front of them and hearing the very finally honed legal arguments of the best lawyers of our generation. it will be a good argument but these judges are used to hearing good arguments. >> can you tell us about these three judges. >> what i said they're sort of like a mini version of the supreme court. we have judge reinhard who would be a very liberal judge. we have judge smith on the other end who is a fairly new judge but we think is going to be very conservative given his background and judge hawkins in the middle playing the anthony kennedy role of the moderate swing vote on this particular panel. >> this is not the end, right? how long until we see an answer from the three-judge panel and what would be the next step after that?

the case for same-sex marriage was made by former solicitor general ted olson, david bois's one-timedversary when they argued bush v gore in the 2000 election. >> it is important to focus on the fundamental fact that california has engraved discrimination on the basis of sex and sexual orientation into its fundamental governing charter. >> brown: he argued that prop 8 was aimed at the essence of what he called traditional marriage. >> the key reason that marriage has existed at all in any society and at any time is its sexual relationships between men and women naturally produce children. when a relationship between a man and a woman becomes a sexual one, society immediately has a vital interest in that for two reasons: one, society needs the creation of new life for the next generation, but secondly, society... its vital interests are actually threatened by the possibility that an unintentional and unwanted pregnancy will mean that the child is born out of wedlock and is raised by in all likelihood its mother alone. that directly implicates society's vital interest. >> brown: but ju

. >> reporter: that's the main argument attorney ted olson made before the three judges of the ninth circuit court of appeals in the battle over proposition 8 passed by a majority of californians who said marriage is between one man and one woman. during the hearing the judges focused on the california's extending nearly all the rights of opposite sex married couples to same-sex couples. >> you have had all of the aspects of marriage other than the title. what is the reason for wanting to take that title away? >> the people of california needed no reason beyond the fact that they disagreed that their constitution ordained that result. that their constitution outlawed and invalidated traditional definition of marriage. >> reporter: reinhardt is considered the liberal supporter of same-sex marriage. conservatives judge randy smith thought to tilt toward traditional marriage. so all isles are on judge michael hawkins, considered more moderate. >> i thought they did a very good job at not tipping their hands. records in legal terms the prop 8 crowd says this case comes down to whether th

>> reporter: ted olson, famed conservative republican lawyer, now championing gay marriage, jumped onment that somehow banning it could help children. >> if that was a justification, it would equally warrant banning comic books, television, video games, and conversations with other children. >> reporter: and san francisco city attorney clarice stewart told the court that for advocates of gay marriage, the word "marriage" is crucial. >> we are talking about a label, your honor, but it's a very important label. it does have great meaning and i think both sides of the table would stipulate to that. >> reporter: terry moran, abc news, the supreme court. >>> i want to try and do this right. can you hear me now? >> you've got it. >> probably not if your provider is at&t. >> "consumer reports" has named at&t the worst cell phone service provider, especially for iphone users. t-mobile came in second to last. regional carrier u.s. cellular replaced verizon as the very best provider, and sprint scored better than verizon when it came to customer service. >> the result came from a survey of near

but once he took office and advised by the office of legal counsel ted olson, jood vised by the attorney general of the united states, william french smith, bill smith, both of whom i was privilege to serve, the president the united states did a mea culpa and repented of his position, much to the chagrin of the domestic policy folks in the white house who felt this was an important device. why did the president change his vuseview with respect to the legislative veto? because the justice department told him it was unconstitutional. that to me is one of the great rolers in justice department to play, to ensure presidential fidelity to law. >> you've got some people on this panel who celebrate the president's fidelity to, his oath to uphold the constitution and his decision to subordinate the obligation to take care that the laws be enforced is a superior obligation to the constitutional over statutory law. i think from time to time you've expressed some concern that those in the executive branch have gone too far in asserting the president's authority to do this. how can you defend such a