Members of the Senate next week are voting to confirm attorney Thomas Alvin Farr, who has been described as a “judicial throwback to white supremacy and segregation,” for U.S. District Judge for the Eastern District of North Carolina. With the nomination of yet another controversial judge before her, advocates are calling on Sen. Susan Collins to break her pattern of support and rebuke the nominee.
Farr, whose nomination cleared the Senate Judiciary Committee by a single vote last January, had been previously hired by the North Carolina legislature to defend a “monster” voting I.D. law and state redistricting efforts that were officially described as “among the largest racial gerrymanders ever encountered by a federal court.”
The voting I.D. law — which required would-be voters in North Carolina to present certain forms of government-issued identification, significantly slashed the early voting period, and eliminated same-day voter registration, as well as out-of-precinct voting and pre-registration for high school students — was struck down by the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals as containing provisions “enacted with racially discriminatory intent” and targeting “African Americans with almost surgical precision.” The U.S. Supreme Court did not take up North Carolina Republicans’ appeal of the circuit court’s decision.
When the Senate Judiciary Committee questioned Farr about the decision, he said, “At the time our clients enacted those laws, I do not believe that they thought that were purposefully discriminating against African Americans.”
The 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals also ruled in 2016 that the Republican-led legislature violated the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment by unjustifiably using race to redraw district lines in 2011. Farr represented the legislature in this case as well.
Last week, the NAACP issued a statement condemning the nomination, describing Farr as the “vote-suppressor-in-chief” and saying his confirmation would be “heresy.”
“Thomas Farr poses a serious threat to civil rights, especially since he would preside over a jurisdiction with a large African-American population,” read the statement. “Even among dangerous Trump nominees, Farr stands out for his decades-long crusade to disenfranchise African Americans.”
“He learned how to intimidate Black voters from segregationist Senator Jesse Helms,” the NAACP noted, pointing to Farr’s tenure as lead counsel for Jesse Helms’ 1990 Senate re-election campaign, “and helped turn North Carolina into ground zero for voter suppression.”
The NAACP concluded by urging “each and every Senator to reject this judicial throwback to white supremacy and segregation.”
Despite the vehemency of the opposition, advocates in Maine are concerned that Sen. Collins will cast her vote in his favor after her recent votes to confirm U.S. Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh and other highly controversial judicial nominees.
“So, are we even bothering to call [Sen. Collins] about this far-right judicial nominee or nah?” Kate Brogan, vice president for public affairs of Maine Family Planning, quipped on Twitter.
For Mainers who have concerns about Farr’s nomination, Sen. Collins can be contacted at (202) 224-2523 and Sen. Angus King can be reached at (202) 224-5344.
(Top photo from C-SPAN)
Daily Updates