In response to the defeat of the nomination of Thomas Farr, Donald Trump’s nominee for a seat on the Eastern District of North Carolina, People For the American Way Executive Vice President Marge Baker issued the following statement:

“The defeat of Thomas Farr is an important victory for civil rights, for racial justice and for our democracy. There’s no question that Farr was deeply unfit for a lifetime seat on the federal bench. He spent his career trying to deny rights to African American voters in North Carolina. The idea that people could expect equal justice in a courtroom presided over by this man was preposterous.

“That so many Republicans were willing to overlook this flagrantly bigoted record is appalling. And the fact that evidence of Farr’s dishonesty and extremism continued to come to light until this week is an indictment of the White House selection process and the deliberately shoddy vetting process for judicial nominees that’s taken place under Chuck Grassley and the Senate Judiciary Committee. In their rush to rubberstamp Trump’s nominees for lifetime seats on our federal courts, Republicans on the Judiciary Committee have routinely rushed nominees onto the Senate floor only to see major problems with their honesty and integrity come to light. It’s an appalling abdication of responsibility that endangers the integrity of our courts.”

People For the American Way is a progressive advocacy organization founded to fight right-wing extremism and defend constitutional values including free expression, religious liberty, equal justice under the law, and the right to meaningfully participate in our democracy.

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