President Donald Trump has re-nominated GOP attorney Thomas Farr to fill the nation’s longest running federal judicial vacancy, located in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of North Carolina.
The Conservative newspaper Washington Times is reporting the re-nomination, but there has not been official word posted via the White House news reports. Farr was initially nominated by Trump in July of 2017 and then re-nominated again in January.
His nomination was approved in January by the the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee but has since languished on the Senate floor. The newspaper reports it’s the longest judicial appointment delay thus far in Trump’s presidency.
The federal judgeship has been vacant for over 11 years and long been referred to as a judicial emergency. Former President Barack Obama nominated two different women to fill the vacancy and N.C. Sen. Richard Burr blocked both nominations.
There has been widespread opposition to Farr’s nomination to the bench. The appointment, if confirmed is for life.
The Senate has been holding hearings and advancing Judicial nominees during recess and with few Senators in attendance, according to NPR.
One of those hearings included another Trump nominee, Allison Jones Rushing of North Carolina to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit. There were no Democratic Senators in attendance for the hearing and very few Republicans, according to Roll Call out of Washington D.C. Not even North Carolina Republican Senator Thom Tillis was in attendance.
Rushing, 36, is from East Flat Rock and graduated from Duke University School of Law. Her lack of experience and far-right leaning ideology has been criticized by opponents who don’t want her nomination to be confirmed.
Even Sen. John Kennedy questioned her level of experience during the hearing, according to Roll Call.
“I can see your résumé. You’re a rock star, but I think to be a really good federal judge you’ve got to have some life experience,” the newspaper reported Kennedy said. “Williams & Connolly is a great law firm, a lot of great lawyers there. Tell me why you’re more qualified to be on the Fourth Circuit than some of the Williams & Connolly [lawyers] that have been there for 20 years, 25, 30 years in the trenches.”
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