Tom Brady adds Supreme Court veteran to ‘Deflategate’ team

Lawyers representing New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady have added a star attorney with extensive Supreme Court experience to the legal team fighting his punishment for the “Deflategate” scandal.

The addition of Ted Olson, who was President George W. Bush’s Supreme Court lawyer for three years, indicates Brady and his team may be girding for a battle at the nation’s highest court. The legal time has also filed an application to extend the time frame to appeal the latest decision in the case.

{mosads}The NFL Players Association revealed that it had retained Olson Friday in a notice with the federal Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit in New York City.

That court ruled Monday that the NFL acted properly when it suspended Brady for four games due to allegations that he was responsible for underinflated footballs used in a January 2015 playoff game against the Indianapolis Colts. The case hinges on the union contract that the NFL holds with the players’ association.

Olson, acting on behalf of the union and Brady, asked to be given until May 23 to file an appeal in the case. He wrote that his clients “are currently evaluating that decision,” and considering whether to ask for a rehearing or to ask for the all 13 judges of the court to hear the case.

If such an appeal is not successful, Brady and the union could then ask the Supreme Court to hear the case.

Olson said in his filing that the circuit court’s decision “raises significant labor law issues that could have far-reaching consequences for all employees subject to collective-bargaining agreements.”

Olson, who works out of Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher’s Washington, D.C., office, represented Bush in the pivotal 2000 Supreme Court case Bush v. Gore, which decided the 2000 president election.

He has argued 62 cases before the high court, including Hollingsworth v. Perry, where he represented a lesbian couple and successfully overturned California’s prohibition on same-sex marriage