President Trump nominated Thomas Farr to the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of North Carolina in 2017. Since his nomination and re-nomination, the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, Inc., alongside other national civil rights groups, has vigorously opposed him because we believe he is not fit to serve on the federal bench. Here’s why: 

  • Farr has dedicated his career to two missions: disenfranchising voters of color and attacking workers’ rights.
  • Farr has connections to one of the most influential hate groups of the 20th century.
  • Farr helped draft, then defended the North Carolina voter restriction law that targeted black voters “with almost surgical presicion.”
  • Farr has championed weakening, or even eliminating, legal protections for employment discrimination.
  • In 1984 and 1990, Thomas Farr was lead counsel for Jesse Helms’ campaigns for senate. Campaign tactics included sending threatening postcards to Black voters, racial fearmongering ads & opposing a Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Day and Voting Rights Act reauthorization.

 

“That Farr would now be made a federal judge is offensive. It is offensive to African Americans in the Eastern District and all people who depend on independent and impartial courts. His legal career has been dedicated to opposing the rights of workers and denying African Americans full participation in our democracy. His record is repugnant and provides ample grounds to oppose his confirmation.” 
Sherrilyn Ifill, President and Director-Counsel of the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, Inc.

“Thomas Farr’s record of hostility to civil rights, sympathy for white supremacy, and support for voter suppression is no secret, and it makes him patently unfit for a lifetime appointment to a federal court. From his time working for Senator Jesse Helms, to his recent defense of a voter suppression bill designed to disenfranchise African Americans, Farr has devoted his career to entrenching racial injustice in the United States. It is especially galling that he has been nominated to serve in North Carolina’s Eastern District, which contains a significant Black population. He cannot be trusted to deliver impartial justice to them, or to any Americans. We urge Senators to halt his nomination.”
–Todd A. Cox, director of policy at the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, Inc. (LDF)

 

Read on for more on Farr:
LDF Statement on Nomination of Thomas Farr to Federal Bench

Civil Rights Leaders Urge Senate Judiciary Committee to Oppose District Court Nominee Thomas Farr

LDF Calls for New Senate Judiciary Committee Hearings for Brett Talley and Thomas Farr

Thirty-Six National and State Organizations Jointly Demand Additional Senate Judiciary Committee Hearings for Brett Talley and Thomas Farr

LDF Statement on Senator Grassley Advising the White House to Reconsider the Judicial Nominations of Brett Talley and Jeff Mateer

LDF’s Todd Cox: Senators Must Work Harder To Properly Judge Our Judges

White Supremacy Has No Place on the Federal Bench

LDF Condemns Renomination of Thomas Farr; Renews Call for Additional Senate Judiciary Committee Hearing

LDF Condemns Senate Judiciary Committee Vote on President Trump’s Judicial and Executive Nominees

Praising The “Dream,” Deferring Its Promise

Senators Against White Supremacy: Time To Match Rhetoric To Votes On Nominees

 

 

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