Washington, D.C. — President Donald Trump’s judicial nominees are moving through the Senate at a rapid pace despite major concerns about problematic records on voting rights, hateful rhetoric, and racial hostilities, according to a new issue brief from the Center for American Progress.
The list includes Thomas Farr, nominated to serve on the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of North Carolina. Farr defended North Carolina’s illegal voter identification law that was designed to suppress African American voter turnout, and he represented the late Sen. Jesse Helms (R) during the senator’s notoriously racist campaign in the 1990s.
Other nominees include a former state lawmaker who pushed a discriminatory voter ID law and a White House lawyer who helped establish Trump’s “Election Integrity Commission” that critics say is aimed at suppressing the rights of voters.
“Taken together, the nominees show a troubling hostility toward equal access to the ballot, particularly for communities of color,” said Michele Jawando, vice president for Legal Progress at CAP and co-author of the brief.
Despite the concerns, Trump has seen more than twice the number of Senate confirmations as former President Barack Obama did at this point. The Senate Judiciary Committee also is moving faster, holding hearings for more than two dozen of Trump’s nominees, nearly twice as many as Obama at this point.
Read the issue brief: Senate Rushing to Confirm Trump Judges Who Back Voter Suppression by Billy Corriher and Michele L. Jawando
For more information on this topic or to speak with an expert, please contact Sam Hananel at [email protected] or 202.478.6327.