CAMBRIDGE, Mass. -- If President Barack Obama is hoping for bi-partisan support of his future U.S. Supreme Court nominees, he may have painted himself into a political corner, prominent conservative attorney Kenneth W. Starr told a crowd of Mormon attorneys.

Starr said Obama may have occasion to appoint two or more justices to the high court, and because he actively opposed nominees from former President George W. Bush while Obama was the junior senator from Illinois, Senate Republicans just might return the favor.

During an address Friday night at the historic Old South Meeting House in downtown Boston, Starr reminded attendees of the J. Reuben Clark Law Society conference that Obama supported a filibuster against Justice Samuel Alito and voted against John Roberts, now Supreme Court chief justice.

"It is the era of President Obama; it is also the era of the Roberts court, two very able lawyers," said Starr, who pointed out what he called some "demographic facts" about members of the court, including that John Paul Stephens, the oldest member of the Supreme Court, recently celebrated his 88th birthday. Starr said there are four members of the court  in their 70s and eligible for retirement, and one member in his 60s has reached retirement eligibility.

"These two key facts, perhaps that was three, suggest that President Obama will, during his four years, or eight years, as president of the United States, make one or two or perhaps more appointments to the nation's highest court," Starr said.

Starr also said Obama enters office with solid Democratic majorities in both chambers of Congress and support from several key moderate Republicans who can help him advance his legislative agenda.

However, Starr pointed out, "the salience of this very enviable position, politically, for our president is brought home by the president's own approach to the high court during his years of service as a United States senator." He continued, "There is one historical factoid of note: He is the first president of the United States ever in our history to have participated in a Senate filibuster of a judicial nominee. Never before has that  happened."

Starr cited a November article in The Washington Times about the problems Obama faces, quoting, "Senate Republicans say the president-elect's voting record and long simmering resentments over Democrats' treatment of President Bush's nominees will leave Mr. Obama hard-pressed to call for bipartisan help confirming judges or even an up-or-down vote."

Starr told the audience he would not speak in depth publicly about his scheduled March 5 appearance before the California Supreme Court, where he will argue in favor of upholding a ban on same-sex marriage approved by voters under Proposition 8.

"I'm not going to be talking about that," he said. "One of my precepts is never argue outside the courtroom, on the courthouse steps, so to speak, your case. At the same time, I recognize how important the issue is, so a compromise that occurred to me is simply to share with you several sentences, briefly, from two sources of law."

Starr then read from prior opinions of the California Supreme Court on the limits of public officials' ability to execute their public duties as well as a passage from the California state constitution stating that only marriage between a man and a woman is legally valid.

Starr, who is not LDS, referred to his long-standing connections with members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. He helped host the J. Reuben Clark Law Society's 2007 conference held at Pepperdine University in Malibu, Calif., where Starr serves as dean of the Pepperdine University School of Law.

"My ties to the LDS community generally, and to this society specifically, are quite enduring," Starr said. "I treasure my friendship with the great Rex Lee, and I was honored to serve two terms on the board of visitors for the J. Reuben Clark School of Law."

Starr told the Mormon Times that he grew up in Texas and spent time in Northern Virginia, both areas with strong LDS communities.

"I have hung out at the law school at Brigham Young for various and sundry reasons going way back to my membership on the board for two terms," Starr said.

When asked by the Mormon Times for his thoughts on political matters, including news that Rep. Henry Waxman, D-Calif., and Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., have expressed desires to investigate former president George W. Bush, Starr did not have much to say.

"I don't comment on politics," he said. "That's obviously for the Article One (of the U.S. Constitution) branch. I'm practicing law over in the Article Three branch."