As solicitor general under George W. Bush, he argued for the president’s expanded wartime powers. And he was head of the Office of Legal Counsel under Ronald Reagan.

So why is Ted Olson about to argue on the side of why Prop 8 should be overturned in California?

Simply put: He believes laws against same-sex marriage are fundamentally unconstitutional. In truest conservative fashion, he believes in the freedom of the individual American, especially from government interference in private lives.

“This case could change the way people think about one another,” says Olson, in an article in penned in Newsweek this week. “We are forever putting people into this box or that box, instead of just seeing each other as human beings.”

Click here to read Olson’s motivations in his own words, and look forward to more coverage of this case as it unfolds beginning this week.