Ken Starr Officially Joins Pro-Prop 8 Fight

Guess who’s doing a fine job of inserting himself into California’s gay marriage debate? A one Ken Starr, currently the dean of Pepperdine University’s law school, but most famous for investigating Bill Clinton while a sitting president. As expected, Starr is going after Cali’s Attorney General Jerry Brown for “inviting … a constitutional revolution” by asking the State Supreme Court to overturn Prop 8. And he’s got yesterday’s court filings to wave around while doing it!

In papers submitted to the state Supreme Court, lawyers for the Protect Marriage coalition argued that Brown had “invented an entirely new theory” by asking the justices to trump the electorate, which approved Proposition 8 to amend the state Constitution to limit marriage to a man and a woman.

“We will not mince words. The attorney general is inviting this court to declare a constitutional revolution,” reads the brief co-written by Kenneth Starr, dean of Pepperdine University’s law school and former independent counsel who investigated President Bill Clinton.

The competing positions come in a series of legal challenges to Proposition 8 brought after the ballot initiative passed with 52 percent of the vote on Nov. 4. Brown initially said he would defend the measure in his role as attorney general.

[…]

Starr and co-counsel Andrew Pugno maintained in their brief filed Monday that the attorney general is asking the court to assume powers not granted by the Constitution.

“The judiciary is entirely a creature of the Constitution, not an independent, freestanding guardian of minority rights or natural law,” they wrote.

In an interview Monday, Brown responded that it was the sponsors of Proposition 8 who have misunderstood the role of the courts in a democratic society.

“Mr. Starr ignores the fundamental doctrine of judicial review and the historic duty of the Supreme Court to guard our fundamental liberties,” he said. [Newsmax]