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Judicial nominee: I'll follow NC voter ID ruling

A prominent legal defender of North Carolina voting restrictions ultimately struck down by a court as racially biased said Wednesday that his future decisions as a federal judge wouldn't ignore that ruling if he is confirmed to the bench.

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RALEIGH, N.C. — A prominent defender of North Carolina voting restrictions, which the federal courts ultimately struck down as racially biased, said Wednesday that, if confirmed to the federal bench himself, he will abide by that ruling.

Nominated by President Donald Trump in July to a U.S. District Court judgeship vacant for more than 11 years, Thomas Farr has been in the thick of voting rights litigation this decade. Farr and his colleagues helped Republican legislators defend the 2013 state law that mandated photo identification to vote and reduced the number of early voting days.

The 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals struck down these and other voting changes, finding they targeted African-Americans "with almost surgical precision." Farr also defended in court the 2011 congressional and legislative redistricting maps, which judges also threw out over illegal racial gerrymanders.

Farr is backed strongly by North Carolina's two Republican U.S. senators in the GOP-controlled Senate. Black congressional leaders said this week his nomination should be rejected, as did the state chapter of the NAACP. Both groups used strong language, taking issue not only with his work on recent state voting cases but his work as an attorney for late U.S. Sen. Jesse Helms' campaign in the 1990s.

Both groups recalled the 125,000 postcards sent to black voters during Helms' 1990 re-election campaign, which suggested they weren't eligible to vote and warned they could be prosecuted for voter fraud. The Helms campaign denied sending those cards but signed a consent decree with the U.S. Department of Justice.

"It is no exaggeration to say that had the White House deliberately sought to identify an attorney in North Carolina with a more hostile record on African-American voting rights and workers' rights than Thomas Farr it could hardly have done so," Black Caucus members, including Democratic 1st District Congressman G.K. Butterfield, said in their letter.

The groups also noted that black female nominees for this post have twice been passed over due to a lack of support from North Carolina's GOP senators.

During Wednesday's Senate Judiciary Committee hearing, Farr said he disagreed with the 4th Circuit panel that ruled GOP lawmakers intentionally discriminated against black voters with the voter ID law. Still, he said he would follow the ruling if he became a judge.

"The 4th Circuit decision is binding on everyone, and as a judge, I would have to follow it, and I will follow it," Farr told Democratic Sen. Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota during a confirmation hearing for Farr and four other judicial nominees. "But at the time our clients enacted those laws, I do not believe that they thought that were purposefully discriminating against African-Americans."

Farr, a Raleigh employment and constitutional law attorney, would fill an eastern North Carolina judgeship vacant since Judge Malcolm Howard moved to semi-retirement status at the end of 2005. It's the longest federal judicial vacancy in the country, according to data on a federal court website.

Farr was initially nominated to the judgeship in 2006 by President George W. Bush and again in 2007, but his nomination never got a vote in the judiciary committee. President Barack Obama later nominated two attorneys to fill Howard's vacancy, but neither received a hearing.

No vote was taken Wednesday on the five nominees by the committee. Farr's confirmation didn't appear in danger of getting blocked.

U.S. Sen. Thom Tillis of North Carolina, who presided over Wednesday's meeting aired on the committee's website, said Farr is "widely respected as one of the best legal minds in North Carolina."

"Knowing him personally, I can attest that he has the requisite expertise, character and judgment required for the federal bench," added U.S. Sen. Richard Burr of North Carolina, who presented Farr to the committee. Both cited that Farr had support from individuals of both parties and received a "well-qualified" rating from the American Bar Association as a nominee.

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