U.S. Rep. Alma Adams added her voice in opposition to Senate confirmation of Thomas Farr for a federal judgeship.

Adams, a Democrat whose congressional district includes Charlotte, attended today’s Senate Judiciary Committee meeting to oppose Farr’s nomination to the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of North Carolina. The Congressional Black Caucus also sent a letter to Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley and Ranking Member Dianne Feinstein to oppose Farr.

Democrats charge Farr lied to lawmakers for his role with the 1990 Jesse Helms Senate campaign, which sent postcards in mostly-black communities to discourage turnout in his race against former Charlotte mayor Harvey Gantt, an African American. He most recently represented Republican lawmakers in their court fight over legislative districts found to be racial gerrymanders.

The Judiciary Committee confirmed Farr by an 11-10 vote along party lines, which moves his nomination to the full Senate.

“From his role in the Helms campaign that sought to disenfranchise minority voters to his hand in drafting unconstitutional voter ID legislation and defending gerrymandered congressional districts that targeted African-American voters ‘with almost surgical precision’, Mr. Farr has proven that he cannot be trusted to uphold critical legal rights and protections,” Adams said.

Farr, who has tried cases in federal and state courts in North Carolina, was nominated by former President George W. Bush to fill the vacancy in 2006 but was blocked by former Sen. Kay Hagan, a Democrat. Sen. Thom Tillis, a North Carolina Republican who supports Farr, accused Democrats of engaging in a “smear campaign” by mixing his work as a lawyer to politics.

“Ignoring Mr. Farr’s impressive qualifications, the far-left objects to his role providing legal counsel to Republicans in North Carolina on both voter ID and redistricting cases,” Tillis wrote in an editorial published by The Hill. “This is a break from the bipartisan tradition that we do not hold lawyers accountable for the clients they represent and any animus one may harbor against them.” 

The seat Farr was nominated for is the longest judicial vacancy in the country and has been twice denied to African American women nominated by former President Barack Obama. Jennifer May-Parker, chief of the Appellate Division at the U.S. Attorney's Office, was nominated in 2013 and Patricia Simmons Goodson, a former state Supreme Court justice and vice chairwoman of the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights, was nominated in 2016. The Eastern District has never had a black justice.

“Mr. Farr’s nomination is another tragic example of the racism that permeates President Trump’s actions and animates his policies. Instead of uniting Americans in common cause, the president has constantly shown that he aspires to represent only the most bigoted and divisive members of his base. By nominating Thomas Farr, the president has once again illustrated that he believes only certain Americans deserve equal protection and just treatment under the law.”

North Carolina NAACP President T. Anthony Spearman also opposes Farr’s confirmation, arguing the district has counties with the highest percentages of black residents in the state.

“It would seem equitable to nominate someone who would serve with fairness, usher in accessibility, transparency, efficiency and effectiveness,” Spearman said. “That's what a modern civil justice system offers. But this nomination has none of those things in mind. Rather, the intent of this nomination is tantamount to that of a hacker whose intent is to gain unauthorized access to your computer and wipe out all the data. The intent behind the nomination of the Jessie Helms enthusiast Thomas Farr is to wipe out the minority population in the Eastern District.”

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