[Congressional Record Volume 164, Number 186 (Tuesday, November 27, 2018)]
[Senate]
[Pages S7124-S7125]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



                       Nomination of Thomas Farr

  Mr. BROWN. Mr. President, we have just been through a long election 
season, with a lot of close races. In States all over the country, 
voters had to contend with relentless attacks on their voting rights. 
We saw it in Ohio, where voters were purged from the rolls. We saw it 
in my mother's home State of Georgia, where more than 50,000 voter 
registrations were held up. Seventy percent of those were from Black 
voters. We know exactly who these laws are aimed at. It is people of 
color, and it is despicable. It is outrageous.
  Rather than working to fix this problem, making it easier for voters 
to exercise their fundamental right, this administration and Republican 
leaders in this body and in State legislatures around the country want 
to put a man on the Federal bench who has supported unapologetic 
racists and defended voter suppression laws.
  This body has done nothing to try to stop voter suppression. 
Controlled by Republicans, State legislatures around the country, in 
legislature after legislature, have, in fact, emboldened people who 
want to suppress voting rights.
  Andrew Gillum and Stacey Abrams are two candidates each who would 
probably be Governor-elect right now if every voters' voices had been 
heard. Listen to what they had to say about Thomas Farr, the nominee 
for the Eastern District of North Carolina: ``When it comes to the 
trifecta of voter disenfranchisement--voter suppression, racial 
gerrymandering, and restriction of voting rights--Thomas Farr is, 
sadly, one of the most experienced election lawyers in the country.''
  When it comes to the trifecta of voter disenfranchisement, he wins 
the award. He defended North Carolina's voter suppression laws--among 
the worst in the country. The Fourth Circuit Court said that the law 
targeted Black voters ``with almost surgical precision.''
  He defended Jesse Helms in a lawsuit where Jesse Helms campaigned and 
sent 125,000 postcards to African-American communities, telling them 
that they would be arrested for voter fraud at their polling places. 
Considering the history of voter suppression in that State, imagine the 
terror, in many cases, in the eyes of those African-American voters who 
saw those postcards telling them that they could be arrested for voter 
fraud at their polling places. Of course many of them were not going to 
vote then, which is exactly what Jesse Helms and Thomas Farr wanted to 
happen. Thomas Farr defended Jesse Helms in court. To put

[[Page S7125]]

this man on the Federal bench is a national disgrace.
  The cherry on top of this nomination is the fact that Barack Obama 
nominated two African-American women to serve on this court. Under the 
leadership of the gentleman down the hall, the Republican leader, Mitch 
McConnell, this body didn't even give them a hearing. Instead of the 
choice of two African-American women who led over a decade, they want 
to put a man on the bench who defended segregationists and voter 
suppression. They want to put that kind of judge in that seat. It is a 
throwback to the worst moments of our history. This body shouldn't 
stand for it.