Kenneth Winston Starr (born July 21, 1946) is an American lawyer who has also been a United States circuit judge and U.S. solicitor general. He is the former president and chancellor of Baylor University, and formerly held the Louise L. Morrison chair of constitutional law at Baylor University Law School. He headed an investigation of members of the Clinton administration.
Starr served as a federal Court of Appeals judge and as solicitor general for George H. W. Bush. He received the most publicity for his tenure as Independent Counsel while Bill Clinton was U.S. president. Starr was initially appointed to investigate the suicide of deputy White House counsel Vince Foster and the Whitewater real estate investments of Bill Clinton. The three-judge panel charged with administering the Independent Counsel Act later expanded the inquiry into numerous areas including suspected perjury about Bill Clinton's sexual activity with Monica Lewinsky. After several years of investigation, Starr filed the Starr Report, which alleged that Bill Clinton lied about the existence of the affair during a sworn deposition. The allegation led to the impeachment of Bill Clinton and the five-year suspension of Clinton's law license.
Starr served as the president and chancellor of Baylor University in Waco, Texas, from June 2010 until May 2016. On May 26, 2016, following an investigation into the mishandling by Starr of several sexual assaults at the school, Baylor University's board of regents announced that Starr's tenure as university president would end on May 31. The board said he would continue as chancellor, but on June 1, Starr told ESPN that he would resign his position effective immediately. On August 19, 2016, Starr announced he would resign from his tenured professor position at Baylor Law School, completely severing his ties with the university in a "mutually agreed separation."