The story is a great idea. A prominent conservative lawyer decides to file a federal lawsuit challenging Prop 8 in California. He gets a prominent liberal lawyer to help him out. An interview with Ted Olsen–Bush’s lawyer during Bush v. Gore and later Solicitor General–makes perfect sense.
The Time magazine story lays out all the intrigue and the legal drama, but does it without ever actually talking to an LGBT person. In fact, the only person directly quoted is Olsen. Adding insult to injury, the story quotes a joint statement by groups discouraging a federal challenge to Prop 8, but the only group mentioned in the story is the only non-LGBT specific group–the ACLU.
The story hints that there is concern among LGBT people and activists that Olsen can’t be trusted and directly says there is concern that the lawsuit is too soon, but never gives a human voice to either concern. How hard would it be to get a quote from Evan Wolfson or Jennifer Pizer or Shannon Minter or Prof. Dale Carpenter, to provide some analysis?