While the ABA, nonpartisan and Republican legal circles all agree that Thomas Farr is well qualified to be a District Court Judge, Senator Schumer and DC-based liberal judicial smear groups are attacking Mr. Farr. The irony is that the items they are attacking him for are supported by Democrats!
First, Mr. Farr is being attacked for defending North Carolina’s voter ID law for his client, the state of North Carolina. Putting aside the lawyer's ethical duty to his clients, voter ID is supported by a large majority of Democrats in every survey released. The most recent survey put the numbers at 63% support for a photo ID requirement from Democrats and more interesting, 69% support from lower-educated Democrats.
Of course, the smear groups labels any Republican who backs voter ID as racist. They further claim Mr. Farr is racist for his role in a 1990 case involving the Department of Justice and Senator Jesse Helms. As former DOJ Civil Rights Division lawyer Christian Adam details (emphasis added):
As a follow-up, Farr’s opponents leaked an internal confidential Department of Justice memorandum regarding the 1990 campaign of North Carolina Senator Jessie Helms. Ironically, this leaked memorandum exonerates Farr from the smears his foes intended. . . .
The leaked confidential memo was used as a weapon inside DOJ by ideologically motivated Department lawyers, some of whom now work for left-wing advocacy groups, to advance an overly expansive approach to federal power that could intrude on some forms of political speech.
Yet the leaked memo amazingly demonstrates that Farr advised the Helms campaign against the activities that gave rise to the DOJ action. The memo reveals that Farr specifically advised against the card mailings to voters and other activities that drew DOJ’s scrutiny.
In other words, Farr advised against doing the activity that was the basis of the 1990 Justice Department complaint.
If the smear groups were at all intellectually honest, they would not oppose Mr. Farr on the basis of the DOJ memo but support him for agreeing with their position. The fact is the majority of Democrats should support Mr. Farr's nomination based on the issues which Schumer and the smear groups are using to oppose him. Yet this shows that their opposition is not really about Mr. Farr but instead is about using him as the latest way to attack and resist President Trump.