Ken Starr and Uganda's Judiciary

A story posted on today's Boise Weekly offers some insight into the connection Baylor President Ken Starr has with the judiciary in Uganda -- a country where active homosexuals face the death penalty:

Kenneth W. Starr, former dean of law at Pepperdine University in Malibu, Calif., is famous for championing conservative causes, like during his role as special prosecutor in the Clinton/Lewinsky investigations. In March 2009, representing Protect Marriage, a Christian conservative nonprofit, Starr argued the validity of Proposition 8 before the California Supreme Court.

BW left several messages for Starr at his office at Pepperdine, but neither calls nor e-mails were returned.

Starr is a long-time board member of Advocates International Inc., a group of conservative nonprofit Christian lawyers whose vision is to create "a worldwide fellowship of advocates bearing witness of Jesus Christ through the legal profession." AI links Christian lawyers across the globe, placing special emphasis on Africa.

Starr's associations as Pepperdine's dean of law includes one with the Ugandan Christian University, which is owned by the Church of Uganda. Although Archbishop Orombi is the "chancellor," the man who ran the show was Vice Chancellor, Rev. Prof. Stephen Noll, who after 10 years retired in August and returned home to Pittsburgh.

UCU is proud of its relationship with Starr. "Renowned American lawyer, Kenneth Starr, has praised the context in which Uganda Christian University provides education, saying it offers complete guidance for human behavior," states a UCU story.

Pepperdine's fall 2009 issue of Law Magazine reported that during Starr's last trip to Uganda, "Together with members of the Ugandan judiciary, Dean Starr signed a memorandum of understanding, a document that made official Pepperdine's clerkship program with the Ugandan judiciary. Starr committed Pepperdine would work collaboratively with the Ugandan judiciary to develop academic and legal reform measures."

Many are troubled by the mix of Starr's ideology and his power and influence within the Uganda judiciary, AI's Ugandan Christian Lawyers Fellowship and the students and educators at UCU he rubs elbows with.

Starr left Pepperdine in June to become president of Baylor University, the largest Baptist educational institution in the world.