For readers who haven't yet read this news: Ted Olson, the former Solicitor General under George W. Bush and one of the two brilliant advocates who successfully challenged California's prop 8 law, has issued a statement defending the rights of those who want to construct an Islamic community center near the ground-zero site.
Olson states,
I do believe that people of all religions have a right to build edifices, or structures, or places of religious worship or study where the community allows them to do it under zoning laws and that sort of thing, and that we don't want to turn an act of hate against us by extremists into an act of intolerance for people of religious faith. And I don't think it should be a political issue. It shouldn't be a Republican or Democratic issue, either. I believe Gov. Christie from New Jersey said it well, that this should not be in that political, partisan marketplace.
Olson's wife Barbara died in the ground-zero attacks.
