Confirmation vote on Thomas Farr postponed to next week
Confirmation vote on Thomas Farr postponed to next week
By Brian Murphy
November 29, 2018 11:24 AM,
Updated 18 minutes ago
The Senate postponed to next week the confirmation vote on Raleigh attorney Thomas Farr to be a federal judge in the Eastern District of North Carolina.
The vote was scheduled for noon Thursday, but shortly after 11 a.m. it was moved due to the absence of Sen. James Inhofe, an Oklahoma Republican, due to a family situation that required him to be in Oklahoma, his spokeswoman said in an email.
A divided Senate on Wednesday advanced Farr’s nomination to fill a judgeship on the U.S. District Court in the eastern district. Vice President Mike Pence cast the tie-breaking vote during Wednesday’s procedural vote. Without Inhofe — or another Republican — Farr’s confirmation likely would have failed.
The seat has been open since the Jan. 1, 2006, retirement of Malcolm J. Howard. Farr was nominated by President George W. Bush in 2006 and 2007, but never received a vote. President Barack Obama nominated two African-American women for the court, but neither received a vote. Farr was nominated for the seat by President Donald Trump in 2017 and again in 2018.
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Farr’s nomination was bitterly contested by Democrats, all of whom voted against the nomination Thursday, and civil rights groups, who cited Farr’s work for former Sen. Jesse Helms and more recent work defending North Carolina’s Republican lawmakers in lawsuits over voter ID and gerrymandering. Critics have called Farr hostile to voting rights.
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