thomas farr

November 21, 2019 - The plaintiffs in a racial gerrymandering lawsuit want a North Carolina court to block judicial elections in districts that were drawn last year by the state legislature. In the racially diverse city of Charlotte, three of the eight districts are more than 70 percent white.

October 10, 2019 - The same court that recently ordered fair districts for the state's legislative elections will soon hear a lawsuit challenging North Carolina's congressional districts for being too partisan. The plaintiffs want an expedited trial, since a GOP legislator openly stated that the current map was drawn to elect 10 Republicans out of 13 districts in a state that's almost evenly divided along party lines.

December 6, 2018 - Last month voters in North Carolina put a top voting rights lawyer on the state Supreme Court. Just a few weeks later, the U.S. Senate defeated the judicial nomination of Thomas Farr, who some critics described as the go-to lawyer in North Carolina for defending voter suppression.

November 20, 2018 - The lame-duck North Carolina legislature convenes Nov. 27 to write a new voter ID law after the version it passed in 2013 was struck down for targeting black voters "with almost surgical precision." The same week, the U.S. Senate could vote to confirm to a federal judgeship a lawyer who helped draft the discriminatory law. 

January 17, 2018 - Thomas Farr's nomination to serve as a federal judge in eastern North Carolina has met opposition because of his involvement in efforts to suppress the African-American vote. Less well-known are his efforts to quash workers' organizing rights.

June 23, 2016 - This week, 52 years to the day after three young men were murdered in Mississippi while working to expand voting rights to African Americans, a panel of the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals heard arguments in a challenge to North Carolina's restrictive new voting law that disproportionately impacts African Americans.