On this file picture, Ken Starr testifies on the Home Committee on Training and Workforce on school athletes forming unions on Might 8, 2014, in Washington. Starr, whose legal investigation of Invoice Clinton led to the president’s impeachment, died Sept. 13, 2022. He was 76. Lauren VIctoria Burke, Related Press
Earlier this week, I had the bittersweet expertise of arguing a case in the identical courtroom the place Ken Starr sat as a decide from 1985-86, after I served as his legislation clerk. Throughout a couple of moments of solitude earlier than the arguments started, I gazed at his portrait hanging on a wall and recalled with fondness the numerous examples of Christian discipleship that he set for me and so many others.
The courtroom on which he served was the U.S. Courtroom of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit, typically known as the “second highest courtroom within the land” due to the main function it performs, one degree beneath the Supreme Courtroom, in overseeing the companies of the federal authorities. In his function as a decide on that courtroom (normally known as “the D.C. Circuit”), Starr left a distinguished legacy of necessary opinions in a variety of areas, together with statutory interpretation, church-state legislation, freedom of the press and, after all, administrative legislation.
From there, he would go on to serve with nice distinction as the US solicitor common — the nation’s high courtroom lawyer and its consultant earlier than the Supreme Courtroom. He additionally grew to become a accomplice at one of many nation’s high legislation companies, the place he labored throughout his well-known stint because the impartial counsel investigating former President Invoice Clinton. He would later function dean of the legislation college at Pepperdine College, as president and chancellor of Baylor College, after which lastly, as a professor of constitutional legislation at Baylor. Lately, he turned his efforts to defending spiritual liberty, publishing a well-regarded e book on the subject.
Regardless of this spectacular resume, I shortly discovered as his legislation clerk, and noticed throughout our lengthy subsequent friendship, that the title that meant probably the most to him wasn’t decide, common, accomplice, professor, dean or president.
It was Christian.
And he lived as much as that title in every of his many professional roles.
Early in my work for him, for instance, I used to be struck by his therapy of individuals with totally different views. On the D.C. Circuit in the course of the Eighties, there have been deep divisions on a variety of necessary points, together with, most basically, the right function of the judiciary in our system of presidency. I bear in mind speaking with a clerk for an additional decide a few case we have been each engaged on and being shocked when he stated, “We’re enthusiastic about this case as a result of it’s going to offer us an opportunity to make slightly legislation.”
I assumed, I doubt my boss goes to strategy the case that means.
However regardless of the variations, giant and small, Starr at all times handled his colleagues and their clerks with the utmost kindness and respect, as he did his personal clerks and different workers. I by no means noticed or heard an indignant, harsh or biting phrase, both written or spoken. And his door was at all times open to a colleague, and even one other clerk, who needed to take a shot at persuading him to alter his thoughts after they disagreed.
Starr’s graciousness to his colleagues prolonged to the legal professionals who appeared earlier than him —one thing I respect extra now that I typically discover myself on the opposite aspect of the bench. Sure, Starr was an energetic and incisive questioner. However I by no means noticed him succumb to the temptation — if he was ever actually tempted — to belittle or demean the counsel presenting arguments earlier than him, regardless of the target-rich surroundings such arguments typically present. Nor was there ever any try and show to arguing legal professionals that he knew extra concerning the legislation, or the case, than they did (although he nearly at all times did) and he by no means confirmed any expression of frustration or anger towards them. Right here, too, graciousness and civility have been his hallmarks.
What stunned and touched me most, although, was the best way he handled the help workers.
Shortly after I started my clerkship, I recall being requested by a courtroom worker — a cashier within the cafeteria — who I labored for. After I advised her I labored for Starr, she bought an enormous smile on her face and stated, “He's such a pleasant man. Simply final week he was down right here and we bought to speaking about …” and she or he proceeded to recount what had clearly been an prolonged dialog, one which left her feeling that he was her pal.
I seen too, as we might stroll across the constructing collectively, that he appeared to know the title of each secretary or janitor or cleansing individual we might meet, and one thing about them. Because of this, all of them cherished him, partially as a result of his very presence within the constructing made their jobs extra satisfying.
I discovered the following 12 months that the identical was true of the Supreme Courtroom help workers who had identified him when he clerked there (for Chief Justice Warren Burger) greater than a decade earlier.
He was nonetheless cherished, for instance, by the Supreme Courtroom barber, who was so sluggish that one justice had quipped of his service, “every hair will get private consideration.” Starr had clearly had many lengthy conversations with the barber, which he recounted to me, in full, as I sat in his chair. And he cherished the truth that, lengthy after his clerkship on the courtroom, Starr would nonetheless drop by sometimes to say howdy to him. For the barber, and for therefore many others, Starr’s presence had been a supply of pleasure, a purpose to sit up for coming to work.
I've heard the identical sorts of tales from a lot of Starr’s associates in his subsequent positions — within the U.S. Solicitor Basic’s workplace, on the legislation companies the place he labored, at Pepperdine and at Baylor.
Why did Starr behave that method to everybody round him? A principal purpose, in my view, was that he was an avid pupil of the Bible, particularly the New Testomony, and strove to include into his life and character the teachings and instance of Jesus Christ. A type of qualities — and the widespread thread in all these experiences with Starr — is superbly captured in Paul’s first letter to the Corinthians: “Charity suffereth lengthy, and is type; … charity vaunteth not itself, just isn't overrated, … seeketh not her personal, [and] just isn't simply provoked …”
Thanks, Ken Starr, for modeling for all of us that central Christian advantage, not solely in your private and household life, however in your skilled life as nicely. Might God be with you ‘til we meet once more.
Gene Schaerr, a Washington D.C. legal professional and adjunct professor at BYU Regulation Faculty, was a legislation clerk to Ken Starr when he served as a decide on the U.S. Courtroom of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit.