With the passing of Kenneth Starr this week, the legal profession lost one of its most enduring and impactful figures of the last century. As someone who was able to work with Starr in litigation, I can honestly say that Starr was one of the best lawyers that I have seen in court. He not only had a brilliant legal mind but brought a sense of extraordinary clarity and precision to the law. It was that penetrating intellect that repeatedly led to his being called upon to handle some of this nation’s most intractable and controversial matters. He was often repaid with partisan hostility by the media and Congress. However, he never stooped to the level of his critics. He remained one of the most modest, respectful, and kind individuals that I have ever known.
It is easy to rattle off the list of high-ranking appointments and high-profile cases that made Ken Starr such a historic legal figure. A federal judge, Solicitor General, Independent Counsel, litigator, and academic, Starr left a legacy that few could hope to match in our profession. However, Starr was more than the collection of his resume items. Much more.
While rarely discussed in the media, the life of Ken Starr embodied the very best of the American dream. It is the story of a boy who was the youngest of three children of a Texas barber. proudly calling himself a fifth generation Texan, Starr was born. near the Red River and the Oklahoma border in the tiny town of Thalia with roughly 100 residents and not a single traffic light. The family had little money but made up for it with an abundance of faith. His father served as the local minister and Ken Starr would sell Bibles door-to-door. He grew up as a typical kid going for hamburgers at Jay’s Drive-In and a movie with friends. While Starr would be declared the “most likely to succeed” at Sam Houston High School, few likely imagined that this soft-spoken class president would become a household name and one of the most important lawyers of his generation.
Starr, however, soon went down the dirt road near his home in search of a life of service different from his father. It would take him first to Harding University, a Church of Christ-affiliated school in Searcy, Arkansas and then to George Washington University in Washington, D.C. where he would get his degree in history. He would then go to Duke Law School where he continued to excel as a student. He was given a prestigious appellate clerkship on the Fifth Circuit and then served as a Supreme Court clerk to Chief Justice Warren Burger. After working in a top law firm, he was made counselor to U.S. Attorney General William French Smith.
With each position, Starr stood out for his discipline and skills as a lawyer. President Ronald Reagan appointed Starr to the D.C. Circuit where he served with distinction until he resigned to become the United States Solicitor General under George H.W. Bush. He would argue dozens of cases and was considered one of the best litigators to hold that office.
When controversies arose, Congress and the courts always seemed to call upon Starr, who always answered that call to service. That was the case when the Senate needed to investigate Sen. Bob Packwood (R., Ore.) and it was again the case when Clinton aide Vince Foster committed suicide. In each investigation, Starr’s conclusions were not welcomed by some Republicans, including in his conclusion that Foster died by his own hand.
Then there was the Clinton scandal. Starr found himself at the center of a political hurricane as he pursued possible crimes committed by Bill Clinton. The two men had a similar background as kids born in small, poor towns in the South. Both rose to national fame due to their proven intellect and skills. However, that is where the comparisons ended. Clinton was a walking moral hazard who was notorious even as a state politician for serial adultery. Where Starr displayed a quiet but deep faith, Clinton regularly professed his faith while violating every precept of it.
Suddenly, Starr was made persona non grata by a press intent upon protecting Clinton. Even though democrats admitted that Clinton committed perjury in the Monica Lewinsky matter (and a federal judge affirmed that view), law professors like Harvard Professor Laurence Tribe insisted that perjury was not an impeachable offense. (I would testify at that same impeachment hearing on the other side). Clinton also committed acts that could have been charged as obstruction and witness tampering.
Faced with clear criminal conduct like perjury, the media instead attacked the man who helped bring that conduct to light. Major media and Democratic figures vilified Starr in grotesquely unfair hit pieces on a weekly basis.
Despite the unrelenting personal attacks, Starr remained professional and respectful through this nightmare. Starr remained firmly tethered to core principles. He once said that “Truth is a bedrock concept in morality and law.” It was his North Star and guided everything that he did; everything that he believed.
Starr loved being a lawyer. He found a profession that valued his penchant for precision and persuasion. In later years, Starr would continue to take on major cases like his roles in the Jeffrey Epstein case and in the first Trump impeachment. I did not always agree with his clients or causes but he remained one of the top litigators in the country who fought zealously for his clients. He also quietly continued his life of service in other ways, including representing indigent death row inmates. After Starr was stripped of his presidency at Baylor University after a sexual abuse scandal on the football team, he resigned his position as Chancellor and academic position. He insisted that he was not aware of the scandal until it became public. However, he declared that the university needed a clean break and “the captain goes down with the ship.” He walked away and again refused to exchange barbs in the media with critics who superficially played up the controversy as Starr’s “own sex scandal.”
Indeed, during the Clinton scandal and for the decades that followed, I never heard Starr utter a profane or mean-spirited thought. Despite years of grossly unfair treatment in the media, Starr retained his signature calm and civility.
Starr refused to allow the hate and the harassment to corrupt him or his view of others. He came too far from that dirt road in Thalia to lose his way in Washington. To the end, he was a man of faith. Not just in the religious sense, but a faith in the legal system and the transcendent power of truth. Ken Starr was not just a great lawyer; he was an even greater rarity in Washington, he was a decent man.
This column ran in the Fox.com.
This is an ingenious juxtaposition by Professor Turley.
One sleuth, as hired gun and “fixer,” deliberately and consummately found absolutely nothing of any import or moment in his Russiagate “probe,” he being the dutiful John Dudham.
While a truly intrepid and masterful investigator found absolutely everything down to the very essence, he being the honorable, forthright and veracious Ken Starr.
I only had one question for Mr. Starr whom I did respect. May he RIP. Why did he allow it to be leaked that there was a DNA stain on the blue dress and it was related 99.9% to BC. Up until that point, BC continued to walk out, his supporters followed, and lied that there was no “is”. If it means never has been that “is” one thing. If it means there is “none” that is another thing. BC played games with so-called present tense and past tense connotations. Makes one wonder about BCs 20 something travels on Epstein’s plane. One day that Epstein blacklist has to come out and soon. If one is convicted of minors being trafficked (Maxwell), then those minors should out the one who directed those activities, and the ones who participated in those activities. Guess old Bill was like JFK, who allegedly said; “if he did not have sex daily, he would have a head ache”. Three big alleged whore dogs, JFK, MLK, Jr, and BC who the main stream media allegedly totally protected.
Federal Judge Royce Lamberth also fined BC admin $300,000 for its secret healthcare plan, in effect declaring it Unconstitutional. But meanwhile the Congress was fining Newt Gingrich $300,000 and that was what the press focused on and reported. MSM biasness for and to Liberals was very prevalent beginning 1992, and today it is the Liberals Main Platform. Selah
Sam Rayburn’s comment on Dwight Eisenhower as President applies to Starr as independent counsel:
“Good man, wrong job.”
Your description of Starr as lawyer reminds me of Robert H. Jackson—who fell on his face at Nuremberg. Being the independent counsel in re Clinton, Starr needed to be a very different kind of lawyer, .e.g. Thomas E. Dewey.
Seems people cannot even let go of their partisan passions when a gifted individual dies. Remember in the Clinton scandal, he was the investigator and not the judge or jury. The House and Senate decide if something is worth impeachment or conviction. Even though I am not an attorney, I can certainly respect and admire a skilled and brilliant attorney who argues a case on the other side. As a physician who has testified in a Murder trial and multiple occupational lung injury cases, as well as having been sued for malpractice, and sat on many malpractice panels as we judged the standard of care, I can appreciate a skilled individual attorney even if he is after my scalp or other physician’s scalps. Remain cool and clinical and dissect the other argument clearly and you are more likely to make your case and win. You cannot rationally defeat the other side if you let your passions rule your mind and judgement.
It’s also very helpful to have a brilliant attorney on your side.
I think the Professor’s memorial was heart felt and moving.
RIP Mr. Starr
AMEN!
Are we sure he is really dead and this is not just another coffin Trump is planning to use to bury classified documents?
Yes! These are the questions we need answered!!
An excellent tribute. One criticism however – Ken Starr and Bill Clinton’s upbringing were nothing alike. Although Clinton represented himself as “the man from Hope,” it was actually his mother who was from Hope. Although he lived there with his grandparents for a few years as a toddler, he grew up in Hot Springs, the Southern getaway for the Chicago mob. He has no idea who his father was. His mother claimed different men. His mother was a nurse who slutted around the town of Hot Springs. She finally married Roger Clinton when Bill, who used the name Blythe after a man his mother “married” and took Clinton’s name as a teenager – even though he described the elder Clinton as an alcoholic gambler who abused his mother. Ken Starr, by contrast, came from a decent family and didn’t have to invent a story.
Thank you for that!
A great man…..I don’t think so. Nevertheless my condolences to his family and friends.
Mr. Turley, Look up “moral hazard.” It doesn’t mean what you think it means.
“brought a sense of extraordinary clarity”
Very true. RIP Mr. Starr.
Thanks for the confirmation. I told some friends last night the Judge was kind, down-to-earth, and funny. He always treated me very well. I don’t think he was treated fairly by others.
I attended church with Me Starr and taught his son in Sunday school. We was indeed a man of strong moral character and great kindness to everyone. RIP
As great a lawyer and intellect as Starr may have been, his pursuit of Clinton for crimes originating out of a desire to cover up a clandestine sexual relationship was a terrible misjudgment. He should simply have passed up the opportunity to pursue Clinton over these matters, which had nothing to do with the reasons an independent counsel was appointed in the first place. These matters were not in my view the kind of “high crimes and misdemeanours” that should have given rise to impeachment, and Starr should not have been a leading participant in the effort to impeach Clinton for them.
Thank you Attorney Turley, this was truly a magnificent obituary to an exceptional life and principled individual. May he rest in peace and may his memory forever be a blessing.
Can’t speak to most of Turley’s opinions on Starr, but his treatment of Monica Lewinsky left a strong negative opinion.
Lewinsky was a silly woman who imagined herself at the top of the heap because she gave Clinton BJ’s and accepted a cigar.
But Starr took on the role of Inspector Javert, hounding her and threatening her brother with the full malice of the US government (and we are now getting a clearer picture of just how malicious the government can be).
Starr may have been mostly decent, but he had dark episodes.
Monica Lewinsky was an immature young woman who’s libido was in overdrive.
Her father was a gentleman. Does she take after her mother?
You lost a sub here.
If only more dishonest, dishonorable, self-righteous commenters followed your lead or, perhaps, underwent a metanoia.
https://jonathanturley.org/2022/09/13/stand-the-fk-down-or-get-shot-texas-woman-arrested-for-threatening-the-life-of-judge-cannon-over-mar-a-lago-order/comment-page-3/#comment-2223049
S. Meyer says: September 13, 2022 at 8:41 PM
Why did anyone have to mention Ken Starr? I liked him and saw him healthy about two years ago. Should I have reported back to you what he had to say? The Queen also died, should we have mentioned her as well? How about Mikhail Gorbachov? I feel certain that you read at least one book by David McCullough. Why didn’t you mention him?
What is your point?
Estovir, I am perplexed at your response to admin when you include my comment responding to your own, “It is unfortunate yet predictable that none of the commenters on here mention Kenneth Starr, especially the so called Republicans, “conservatives” or MAGA crop.”
One has to wonder what that is all about. Are you trying to pick a fight? Are you trying to be “self-righteous”? You don’t have more of a leg to stand on than any other commenter. You diss MAGA and Trump supporters. What happened to all those teaching moments when you quoted from the Bible? Does hate trump love?
“Lord, replace my pride, envy, wrath, gluttony, lust, sloth, and greed with love for others and love for you.”
I am not upset you don’t like Trump. There may be a good reason not to, but those reasons have less to do with leadership and more with Pride. You know what I am talking about, Pride, one of the seven deadly sins. I hope you put Pride aside so our relationship on the blog is one of peace and friendship instead of devolving into one where respectfulness hides behind words that never should be said.
Helped to cover up the Epstein scandal.
Overlooked the Baylor football scandal.
Constant apologist for Trump on Fox.
But following any Hillary scandal to the ends of the earth.
People called him Judge, but his career was as much a partisan hack as Mike Lindell.
well put! He followed the law!
Unlike today’s democrats who just raid and harass any and all REAL republicans across the country!
The USA is becoming Venezuela