Justice Brett Kavanaugh holds his personal pocket constitution as he speaks at The Ken Starr Lecture at McLennan Community College, Thursday, Sept. 11, 2025, in Waco, Texas. (AP Photo/Tony Gutierrez)2025-09-12T13:45:03Z WASHINGTON (AP) Justice Brett Kavanaugh says the genius of the American system of government is that no one should have too much power, even as he and other conservatives on the Supreme Court are facing criticism for deferring repeatedly to President Donald Trump.Invoking the list of grievances against King George III that the nations founders included in the Declaration of Independence, Kavanaugh said Thursday the framers of the Constitution were set on avoiding the concentration of power.And the framers recognized in a way that I think is brilliant, that preserving liberty requires separating the power. No one person or group of people should have too much power in our system, Kavanaugh said at an event honoring his onetime boss, Kenneth Starr, a former federal judge and solicitor general celebrated by conservatives who died in 2022. Trumps aggressive effort to remake the federal government did not come up inside a gymnasium on the campus of McLennan Community College in Waco.Across the street from the event, though, several dozen protesters offered a different view of Kavanaugh and Trump. Basically, the Supreme Court has handed the country to Trump, said J.W. LaStrape, the head of the Baylor University Democrats who was among the protesters.BK- Trump Flunky, one banner said. Shame on You. No One is Above the Law, a placard read in a reference to the courts 2024 decision, which Kavanaugh joined, that helped Trump avoid prosecution for his efforts to overturn his 2020 election loss. The courts liberal justices also have objected to the conservatives repeated votes in favor of Trumps emergency appeals to the Supreme Court, including the most decision this week to allow the resumption of sweeping immigration operations in Southern California.Kavanaughs appearance in Waco highlighted Kavanaughs long history with Starr, most notably his stint as a prosecutor in Starrs independent counsel investigation of President Bill Clinton. Starr became a household name in the late 1990s because of his investigation of Clintons affair with White House intern Monica Lewinsky.Kavanaugh pushed Starr to ask Clinton in graphic detail about phone sex and specific sexual acts, according to a 1998 memo.The President has disgraced his office, the legal system and the American people by having sex with a 22-year-old intern and turning her life into a shambles callous and disgusting behavior that has somehow gotten lost in the shuffle, Kavanaugh wrote.Starr followed Kavanaughs advice and his report, filled with the salacious details, was released in full by House Republicans, who ultimately impeached Clinton for lying under oath. The Senate acquitted him.At a dinner honoring Starr a year later, Kavanaugh said Starr deserved a seat on the Supreme Court, though he acknowledged it was unlikely. Still, he called Starr a hero who did not let attacks dissuade him from doing what he thought was right.Be sorry for his critics because they were the ones who sacrificed law and principle for politics and expediency, Kavanaugh said. Ken Starr never did that. In 2018, Starr was among those who publicly defended Kavanaugh, then a Supreme Court nominee, as he faced sexual misconduct allegations, including from Christine Blasey Ford, who said he groped her at a party when they were teenagers and tried to remove her clothes.Kavanaugh forcefully denied the allegations in an emotional statement to the Senate Judiciary Committee, harking back to Starrs investigation when he said revenge on behalf of the Clintons was part of the motivation for what he termed a calculated and orchestrated political hit.Starrs widow, Alice, introduced the justice Thursday, saying she was distraught when Kavanaughs character was called into question.Not one bit of negative press was true, she said, adding that she was well familiar with such criticism from her husbands time as independent counsel.Ken Starr did varied work after the Whitewater investigation. He represented Jeffrey Epstein when the financier was first accused of having sex with underage girls. Epstein pleaded guilty to minor charges and accepted a light sentence in Florida in 2008, in a deal that avoided a more serious federal prosecution. Starr served as dean of the Pepperdine University law school in the Los Angeles area and then as president of Baylor University, also in Waco. But he was forced out of the Baylor job in 2016 in the midst of a sexual assault scandal involving players on the schools football team. A school-commissioned report found that under Starrs leadership, Baylor did little to respond to the allegations.Then in 2020, Starr joined Trumps defense team that won Senate acquittal of the president after his first impeachment. MARK SHERMAN Sherman has covered the Supreme Court for The Associated Press since 2006. His journalism career spans five decades. He is based in Washington, D.C., and previously lived in New York, Paris and Atlanta. twitter mailto RSShttps://feedx.net https://feedx.site