David Boies ’66 Coauthors New Book about Proposition 8 and the Struggle for Marriage Equality

On November 4, 2008, California voters adopted the controversial Proposition 8, a ballot initiative banning same-sex marriage by amending the state Constitution to provide that “only marriage between a man and a woman is valid or recognized in California.”

Shocked by the results of the vote, supporters of marriage equality prepared to challenge Proposition 8 as a violation of the constitutional rights of gays and lesbians, enlisting two of the nation’s preeminent lawyers: David Boies ’66 and Theodore B. Olson. At first glance, they seemed unlikely allies, having argued against each other in the landmark Bush v. Gore case, which effectively decided the 2000 presidential election. But the two men had since become close friends, and dedicated to American principles of equality, due process and the rule of law, they joined forces to bring one of the key civil liberties cases of our time.

The new book by Boies and Olson, Redeeming The Dream: The Case for Marriage Equality is the remarkable story of the four-and-a-half-year struggle to win the right for gays and lesbians to marry in California, from the development of the strategies to challenge Proposition 8, to its being declared unconstitutional in federal district court by Chief Judge Vaughn R. Walker, to ultimate success in the Supreme Court of the United States on June 26, 2013. Boies and Olson guide readers through all the key legal issues framing the fight, the behind-scenes planning of what they recognized from the outset as a landmark case, and the human values that were at the heart of their battle to put state-sanctioned discrimination on trial. Redeeming The Dream is the authoritative account of what some describe as one of the most important civil rights cases since Brown v. Board of Education and Loving v. Virginia, and a riveting story of law, justice, and above all else, love.

The release of Redeeming The Dream also coincides with the release of The Case Against 8, the Sundance award–winning film that will debut on HBO on June 23. Directors Ben Cotner and Ryan White follow four of the case's plaintiffs over a five-year period, while offering exclusive access to the work of David Boies and Ted Olson.