Many legal analysts believe that the high-stakes court case that sets off today in California will eventually make its way to the Supreme Court, where justices could finally rule, once and for all, on the legal questions surrounding same-sex marriage. Viewed through that lens, the stakes couldn’t be higher.

One of the more intriguing aspects of the case are the two lawyers behind it: Former Bush Administration Solicitor General Ted Olson, and longtime litigator David Boies, who argued on opposite sides in the disputed 2000 Florida recount that handed George W. Bush the presidency. This time, they’re on the same side, in favor of same-sex marriage.

Many conservatives have blasted Olson for taking the case. He explains his reasoning in Newsweek. Some of the quotable quotes:

“The United States Supreme Court has repeatedly held that marriage is one of the most fundamental rights that we have as Americans under our Constitution. It is an expression of our desire to create a social partnership, to live and share life’s joys and burdens with the person we love, and to form a lasting bond and a social identity. The Supreme Court has said that marriage is a part of the Constitution’s protections of liberty, privacy, freedom of association, and spiritual identification. In short, the right to marry helps us to define ourselves and our place in a community. Without it, there can be no true equality under the law.”

and

“The second argument I often hear is that traditional marriage furthers the state’s interest in procreation. … This procreation argument cannot be taken seriously. We do not inquire whether heterosexual couples intend to bear children, or have the capacity to have children, before we allow them to marry. We permit marriage by the elderly, by prison inmates, and by persons who have no intention of having children.”

and

“There are now three classes of Californians: heterosexual couples who can get married, divorced, and remarried, if they wish; same-sex couples who cannot get married but can live together in domestic partnerships; and same-sex couples who are now married but who, if they divorce, cannot remarry. This is an irrational system, it is discriminatory, and it cannot stand.”

Allies of the National Organization for Marriage, meanwhile, find the “pettiness” of Olsen and Boies “revolting.”

h/t: Andrew Sullivan